March 2013/4

Weekly share price movements and key data on The Insurance Insider's universe of P&C (re)insurers and brokers

R&Q Reinsurance Company maintains it is not liable to pay $3.9mn to Sentry Insurance for asbestos-related and fire losses on two facultative reinsurance contracts.

Tawa's subsidiary Hamburger Internationale Rück (HIR) has agreed to acquire the run-off reinsurance portfolio of Niedersachsen, the small Hannover-based captive of travel giant TUI.

Tawa's share price took a hit after the run-off acquirer and (re)insurance services provider reported a $22.5mn full-year loss.

(Re)insurers that were hit by claims from the 9/11 attacks asked the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals last week (20 March) to reopen a case that accuses Saudi Arabia of supporting the Al-Qaeda terrorists responsible.

Insurers that write environmental damage cover can only obtain compensation from alleged polluters if policyholders have lodged claims against those firms, the largest US appeals court ruled last week.

A respected member of the European Parliament has placed the blame for the delay and uncertainty in Solvency II implementation squarely on France and Germany.

The International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) confirmed last week that it no longer supports a levy on the entire balance sheet of "too big to fail" (re)insurers.

Montpelier Re will not invest any more of its own capital during the latest fundraising round for its Blue Capital Global Reinsurance Fund, Blue Capital Management CEO and president William Pollett has confirmed.

US insurer Nationwide Mutual has returned to the cat bond market while the North Carolina wind pools more than doubled the size of their hurricane cat bond on the back of high investor demand and low pricing, sister publication Trading Risk understands.

The big four continental reinsurers continued to grow their top line in 2012, with gross written premiums (GWP) up by an average of 8 percent, according to data compiled by The Insurance Insider.

The Lloyd's market is expected to report pre-tax profits of circa £2.8bn in its pro-forma 2012 accounts, which are due to be published later this week, according to estimates from The Insurance Insider.

Deal counts fell last year among US (re)insurers despite conditions that would be expected to encourage strong transactional activity.

UK business process outsourcer Capita Insurance Services has unveiled an initiative to enable its individual risk capture services to become a shared service for the wider London market.

Many of the smaller Lloyd's players do not add value to insurance buyers and create further complications for claims handling, according to Eric Andersen, CEO of Aon Risk Solutions (ARS) Americas.

Chubb looks set to complete the placement of its $1.5bn US excess-of-loss catastrophe cover with a small rate rise even though reinsurers were forced to swallow close to $300mn of Superstorm Sandy losses, The Insurance Insider revealed last week.

Property Claims Services (PCS) has allayed fears of further creep on the bulk of Sandy claims as it reiterated its previous $18.75bn industry loss figure.

The energy account purchased by Norwegian blue chip Statoil is set to price down 7.5 percent at renewal, clearly demonstrating the current weakness of the offshore energy market, The Insurance Insider understands.  

Pricing in the Japanese cat market may have held up slightly better than elsewhere due to the relatively modest impact of two potential negative rating factors: the expansive underwriting of premium-hungry Berkshire Hathaway reinsurance supremo Ajit Jain and the aggression of the collateralised markets.

Most Japanese catastrophe excess-of-loss (XoL) reinsurance programmes look set to renew with very similar structures to last year and on very similar terms, The Insurance Insider understands.

Warburg Pincus - the private equity firm with a long track-record of investing in the (re)insurance sector - is one of the potential acquirers conducting due diligence on up-for-sale Lloyd's (re)insurer Atrium, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

Government interference and the increasing size of vessels are fuelling a rampant increase in removal of wreckage costs.

The US technology company Ebix is set to purchase the London-based electronic placement platform Qatarlyst from the Qatar Financial Centre Authority (QFCA), The Insurance Insider can reveal.

Outgoing Canopius Bermuda CEO Susan Patschak is raising funds with a view to acquiring one or more Floridian insurers, The Insurance Insider can reveal.