March 2006/2

UK broker Heath Lambert Group appointed Nigel Thomas as group finance director on 9 March. Thomas joined Lowndes Lambert in 1995 and was involved in the financial aspects of the Lowndes Lambert/Fenchurch Group merger and the subsequent Lambert...

The fate of the campaign by non-US reinsurers to have onerous collateral requirements relaxed for business written in the US should be known by the end of 2006, after the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) finally set itself a...

UK insurer Royal & Sun Alliance (R&SA) 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 £80mn the previous...

Hannover Re has announced a restructure of its US arm Clarendon and admitted it will weigh up the options for the future of its ongoing specialty and discontinued programme businesses. In a statement on 7 March the German reinsurer revealed the...

Listed UK insurer Hiscox beat analysts’ expectations on 13 March as it reported pre-tax profits of £70.2mn, increasing its final dividend 36 percent to 4.75p in the process. The company put the performance down to its balanced book of business...

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). The (re)insurer also announced that it has raised £38mn capital...

Aon Corp has confirmed that it plans to lay-off another 400 employees as part of its restructuring initiative. The broker – which announced last year that it expects to lose 1400 staff – said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that this...

Lloyd’s insurer Omega Underwriting Holdings predicted a profitable 2005 despite last year’s storm losses with the group estimating a $24mn hit from Hurricane Katrina alone. Omega has forecast a profit of 2.5-12.5 percent for Syndicate 958 on...

Amlin plc was as good as its word when posting record results last week which promise to stand out amongst all the quoted Lloyd’s insurers. The insurance company had already signalled 2005 would be a strong trading year despite the storm losses...

Despite its growing cost base, reinsurance broker Benfield Group announced what was an “encouraging set of results” for 2005 last Thursday (9 March), according to analysts. Group revenue rose 6.8 percent from £303.5mn in 2004 to £324.1mn last year...

Start-up (re)insurer Lancashire Holdings has parted company with vice-president Alex Richards, the former Renaissance Re underwriter, who joined the company at the end of last-year. Richards was part of chief executive Richard Brindle’s start-up...

Shares in UK listed Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group plc (JLT) fell sharply last week following the broker’s 2005 results which showed a fall in profits and a downbeat assessment of trading conditions. JLT’s shares, which started the week at 445p, fell...