March 2006/5

Strong investment income helped French reinsurer SCOR continue its recovery as it recorded a 22 percent increase in 2005 operating profits to EUR242mn, along with a 75 percent increase in net profit to EUR131mn. However, the legacy of the past...

Wellington Underwriting plc says its reinsurance costs have risen substantially after restructuring its programme following Hurricane Katrina last year. The Lloyd’s insurer posted a full-year pre-tax loss of £26.2mn for 2005 as the devastating storm...

Lloyd’s insurer Talbot Underwriting Ltd shrugged off a £3.8mn loss for 2005 with a focus on the strong trading conditions it is currently experiencing. According to the insurer – which underwrites through Syndicate 1183 – it has experienced average...

Fitch Ratings has predicted that a bird-flu pandemic would hit life insurers and their reinsurers hardest, although the rating agency said it did not believe this would lead to a widespread downgrading of (re)insurers.

As widely expected, catastrophe modelling firm Risk Management Services (RMS) has increased the activity predicted by its hurricane loss models by 40 percent for Florida and the Gulf Coast. The company has also increased the modelled annualised...

HCC Insurance Holdings’ executive John Molbeck – who returned to the insurer last year after a stint with Jardine Lloyd Thompson’s US arm – will become the company’s new president and chief operating officer. The insurer’s founder Stephen Way will...

Bermudian reinsurer RenaissanceRe has promoted Ross Curtis to senior vice president of its catastrophe reinsurance unit. Curtis has been with the company since 1999, when he joined as a catastrophe reinsurance analyst, and is involved in the...

Shares in Canadian combine Fairfax Financial Holdings dropped almost 15 percent on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on 22 March. The slump occurred after Fairfax – which owns a number of insurance companies including reinsurer Odyssey Re...

A group of hard-hit US reinsurers suffered over $7bn in collective underwriting losses during 2005 after hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma (KRW) added 23.2 points to the sector’s combined ratio, according to the Reinsurance Association of America (RAA).

Lloyd’s insurer Hardy bucked the trend of underwriting losses when it reported profits of £7.5mn for 2005 on 22 March, underpinned by a positive underwriting result of £6.3mn. Despite the 17.8 percent increase on the previous year’s underwriting...

Lloyd’s insurer Omega Underwriting Holdings plc (Omega) has reported a £6.7mn pre-tax profit in its maiden results as a listed company. The results follow a busy year for the company, which floated on London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment...

Allianz’s head of UK aviation business, Emilio Di Silvio, has parted company with the insurance giant, and is set to head a new aviation syndicate at QBE’s Limit. Di Silvio – who has more than 29 years of aviation underwriting experience – resigned...