May 2012/3

ILS fund manager Nephila Capital has bulked up its assets under management (AuM) by more than $1bn over the past year, shoring up its position at the top of the industry leaderboard.

Chris McKeown, the former head of New Castle and CIG Re, is returning to the convergence market as CEO at Bermudian fund manager Juniperus.

Munich Re said it plans to deploy similar capacity in the upcoming US hurricane renewals as it has in past years after cutting back its property cat writing earlier this year.

The top-listed Lloyd's insurers revealed generally upbeat commentary on the January and April renewals in their first quarter interim management statements, but also revealed a noticeable divide on rate prospects.

Benjamin Franklin once said that out of adversity comes opportunity and so it appears for our (re)insurance universe, with significant top-line growth coming after a tumultuous and catastrophe-ridden 2011.

The trend for insurers forging exclusive relationships with brokers limits distribution and ultimately impairs risk selection, according to Ironshore CEO Kevin Kelley.

Requiring other jurisdictions to seek regulatory equivalence to the incoming Solvency II regime was dismissed as an example of European arrogance during InsiderScope New York's regulation panel.

The potentially thorny subject of the 2011 tussle for Transatlantic Re surfaced at the M&A panel at the InsiderScope New York conference last week as three of the rival bidders appeared on the same platform in public.

Not all investors are enthused by the prospect of high returns on offer from hedge fund style reinsurer start-ups despite the recent emergence of the likes of Third Point Re and PaCRe.

Key quotes from our InsiderScope New York event…

The valuation of brokers and other (re)insurance service providers has climbed to highs not seen since the 2008-09 banking crisis, fuelled by private equity (PE) interest and a ready supply of leveraged finance in the US.

Commercial P&C prices in the US were up 4.4 percent on average in the first quarter of 2012 compared to the prior-year period, according to The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers (CIAB).