May 2007/3

Talbot is expected to announce within days that it has found a buyer in Bermudian (re)insurer Validus Holdings Ltd (Validus). The Insurance Insider revealed in its May issue that Validus has emerged as the front-runner to buy the Lloyd’s managing agency.

Investors in PXRE's Atlantic & Western Re (AWR) cat bond have recovered the principal after the bond was effectively triggered by the Bermudian reinsurer's default.

In the week that Talbot is set to announce a profitable sale to Bermudian (re)insurer Validus (see article 7), its predecessor company, Allegheny Underwriting drew-down a further £29.9mn from the Lloyd's Central Fund to cover its legacy losses.

The impact of recent changes to the Florida Hurricane Cat Fund (FHCF) will be less than originally anticipated, according to Geoffrey Bromley, non-Americas chairman of reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter.

Despite a hiatus at the beginning of the year partly fuelled by events in Florida, the industry has returned to one of the most notable trends in recent years – securitising its business into the capital markets.

RenaissanceRe is set to launch a second Starbound Florida-dedicated sidecar as evidence emerges that the impact of the state’s hurricane catastrophe fund expansion earlier this year may be less severe than first feared.

Benfield Group's 2005 move into primary lines continues to provoke concerns among some analysts about the reinsurance broker's prospects.

The continuing uncertainties in catastrophe models were highlighted as a stumbling block to high ratings for insurance linked securities (ILS), such as cat bonds, last week.

Maintaining underwriting discipline and good cycle management will be key as falling aviation rates send the market towards the "burning cost" for airline business, according to Lloyd’s Annual Report 2006.

Stephen Way, the founder of HCC Insurance Holdings, has teamed up with the $8bn private equity group GTCR Golder Rauner LLC to back a new investment firm specialising in the insurance sector.

London is destined to control a shrinking share of the world's insurance markets, both in absolute terms due to emerging market growth, and in relative terms as a result of "localisation", according to Luke Savage, finance director of Lloyd's.

Synergy Insurance Services, an innovative UK insurer that has been in the pipeline for a number of years, is finally launched this week amid claims that its structure could allow small and medium-sized businesses to save up to 40 percent of their insuranc