March 2014/5

With M&A activity expected to heat up in 2014, (re)insurers could be forced to deploy golden parachutes in excess of $10mn to release their chief executives, analysis by The Insurance Insider's Data Room has discovered.

The geographical make-up of Lloyd's underwriting capital shifted slightly in 2013, as capacity provided by UK-listed and other corporate sources continued to narrow.

Lloyd's double-digit percentage point profit increase last year was driven by a strong performance in property and reinsurance underwriting, outweighing slower progress in the energy, aviation and motor markets, an analysis of the market's 2013 results shows.

Montpelier Re's London-listed Blue Capital Global Reinsurance Fund has postponed its latest planned issue of new shares.

Karen Clark & Company (KCC) has extended its RiskInsight modelling platform to include probabilistic tools that can be used to price risk policies and portfolios of risk.

Oxbridge Re, a start-up reinsurer backed by executives from Florida-based HCI Group, has raised $26.4mn of net proceeds from its initial public offering on the Nasdaq SmallCap Market.

The trend towards consistently higher underlying combined ratios confirmed by Lloyd's in its 2013 annual results last week can be attributed to a combination of greater reserving prudence as well as an underlying erosion of pricing in the market over the past decade, according to Lloyd's director of finance and operations Luke Savage

Despite announcing his departure in July 2013, former Lloyd's CEO Richard Ward will continue to be paid by Lloyd's throughout all of 2014 in a package likely to be worth over £1mn.

Specialty (re)insurer Allied World has announced that it has received approval to set up its own Lloyd's managing agent with effect from 1 April, confirming a move first revealed by The Insurance Insider in September last year.

CEO Dane Douetil has invested a seven-figure sum in BMS to become the second-biggest shareholder after rival broker AHJ, which warehoused the intermediary in its early days, The Insurance Insider understands.

Barbican's marine fund did not go live at 1 January and is now unlikely to do so before 2015, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

AIG grew the property premiums in its London-dominated UK business by 23 percent in 2013, as the business stripped 19 percentage points from its combined ratio.