May 2008/2

The UK Treasury is under renewed pressure to create a more favourable tax regime for businesses or face an exodus of corporations to overseas domiciles.

Profits at specialty insurance group Markel Corporation shrank by 66 percent after the firm was hit by a $56.3mn loss in its investment portfolio.

Allied World Assurance Company Holdings Ltd (AWAC) said underwriting discipline helped net income grow by $17mn in the first quarter of 2008, compared to the prior-year period.

Bermudian sidecar-style reinsurer Castlepoint Holdings Ltd continued to grow both its top and bottom line in the first quarter.

Standard & Poor's (S&P) has improved the outlook on Montpelier Re Holdings Ltd (MRH) and its core operating subsidiary Montpelier Reinsurance Ltd (MRE) from negative to stable citing "meaningful" improvements in enterprise risk management (ERM).

Rating agency AM Best has downgraded Lehman Brothers subsidiary Lehman Re because it has been under-utilised.

Embattled bond insurer FGIC Corp said it has received a "significant number of indications of interest" since revealing that it was looking for a fresh capital injection.

The continuing saga of QBE Insurance's merger approaches to Insurance Australia Group (IAG) is beginning to take on the appearance of an Australian soap opera as twists and plot developments play out through the Australian Stock Exchange.

French reinsurer SCOR saw Q1 profits rise by almost two-thirds to EUR124mn, compared to the prior-year period, after solid growth in Asia and the US.

Allianz Group's first quarter results have been hit by a EUR845mn writedown at subsidiary Dresdner Bank following "difficult market conditions".

Italian financial services firm Generali Group’s interest in purchasing the UK’s second largest non-life insurer, RBS Insurance (RBSI), would be a “very significant financial stretch”, warned a leading insurance analyst.

Despite a slower than expected start to insurance linked securities (ILS) issuance in 2008, the pipeline of cat bond deals is again filling up, with a renewal of a Japanese quake bond expected to close shortly.