March 2006/1

Reinsurance broker Benfield Group announced an “encouraging set of results” for 2005 today (9 March), according to analysts. Group revenue rose 6.8 percent from £303.5mn in 2004 to £324.1mn last year, but the group’s trading result was...

UK insurer Royal & Sun Alliance (R&SA) today (9 March) reported a £685mn leap in its full year after tax profits. After tax profits were £605mn last year, a marked improvement on 2004’s £80mn loss. Profits before tax rose to £865mn in 2005 from...

Bermuda headquartered Catlin Group saw its 2005 net income plummet by 87 percent to $19.7mn after incurring a net loss of $333.5mn from the hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma (KRW), it reported today (9 March). The group also announced today that it...

Shares in UK listed Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group plc (JLT) have again fallen sharply today following the broker’s 2005 results which show a fall in profits and tough trading conditions. At midday, JLT’s shares had fallen almost 12 percent...

As first revealed by The Insurance Insider on 6 February, Lloyd’s has chosen the former head of the International Petroleum Exchange (IPE) Dr Richard Ward to become the next chief executive of Lloyd’s following the departure of Nick Prettejohn at the...

Giant reinsurer Swiss Re reported a 41 percent drop in its 2005 net income to SFr1.451bn from SFr2.475bn in the prior year, a result that reflected a tough year for reinsurers. Swiss Re absorbed SFr3bn in large natural catastrophe claims following...

Warren Buffett said the cost of Hurricane Katrina and “her ugly sisters, Rita and Wilma” cost Berkshire Hathaway a total of $3.4bn last year. The investment titan revealed the extent of Berkshire’s bill in his annual letter to the company’s...

“Class of 2005” start-up Validus Holdings Ltd announced today (6 March) that former Merrill Lynch investment banker Joseph E. (Jeff) Consolino has been appointed chief financial officer and executive vice president of the company and its subsidiary...

Boston-based insurer Liberty Mutual Group last Tuesday (1 March) reported a $312mn fall in fourth quarter net profits to $253mn, and a $218mn drop in full-year profits to $1.03bn as it took close to $1bn in 2005 hurricane losses. The company, which...

Giant insurer American International Group (AIG) has formed a new unit, AIG Specialty Excess, in order to handle all in-force, new and renewal business currently handled by CV Starr & Co agency, a subsidiary of CV Starr & Co, Inc.

Swiss Re’s new chief executive Jacques Aigrain has warned that Bermuda’s “Class of 2005” are at risk of being wiped out by a repeat of the devastating hurricane losses that led to their formation.

Shares in (re)insurer Quanta Capital Holdings Ltd collapsed last week after the company admitted it was putting itself up for sale following deteriorating losses and a downgrade by rating agency AM Best from the crucial A- to B++.