March 2006/5

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.

Hannover Re may decide not to buy catastrophe protection from the traditional retrocessional markets because of the high cost, warned the reinsurer’s chief executive Wilhelm Zeller last week. The retro market is now “damned expensive”...

The hi-tech cargo of the Hyundai Fortune, a ship that caught fire in the Gulf of Aden last week, has been estimated at upwards of $300mn by broker Aon. An explosion on 21 March ripped a hole in the side of the vessel, blew between 60-90 cargo...