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