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June 2007/4

  • Giant Bermuda-based investment hedge fund DE Shaw Group agreed a $575mn deal for US property/casualty insurer James River Group last week.
  • Broker Gallagher Re has announced the appointment of Mark Flower as chief actuary for its UK operations.
  • UK regulator, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), has said that the biggest threats posed by the current boom in private equity are market abuse and conflicts of interest.
  • Expanding Australian sports underwriter Sportscover has announced the extension of its network into Ireland after teaming up with broker and sports specialist O’Driscoll O’Neil.
  • Private equity giant The Carlyle Group has formed a financial services division to concentrate on the insurance and banking sectors, again highlighting investors’ appetite for the industry.
  • Giant US insurer American International Group (AIG) filed a $1bn lawsuit against its former CEO Maurice “Hank” Greenberg and ex-CFO Howard Smith last week.
  • The US Congress is due to discuss an extension to the federal Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) that is scheduled to expire at the end of the year.
  • UK run-off management company Tawa announced a round of redundancies within its 90 staff in London last week, fuelling sentiment that the discontinued business sector is heading towards greater consolidation and streamlining of its resources.
  • Swiss reinsurer Glacier Re joined the list of carriers accessing the capital markets with a $75mn offering under a shelf programme providing it with retrocession cover from windstorm and earthquakes.
  • “Class of 2005” insurer Lancashire Holdings Ltd is likely to be the first of a number of insurers structuring contingent capital deals after it co-operated with investment bank JP Morgan to launch a financing deal last week that would allow it to tap the
  • Aspen Re, a subsidiary of UK (re)insurer Aspen Insurance Holdings Ltd, has announced plans to open a major office in Zurich, to act as the hub for Aspen’s European reinsurance activity.
  • US insurer State Farm is set to place a giant $4bn cat programme, consisting of both bonds and loans, to provide retrocessional protection for one of its subsidiaries. The company has formed a special purpose vehicle, called Merna Re, which will provide