November 2005/2
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Shares in Royal & Sun Alliance (R&SA) rose today after the firm received a welcome boost from analysts ahead of its third quarter results later this week. A note from Numis upgraded the outlook on R&SA shares from ‘HOLD’ to ‘ADD’ and increased its...
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UK insurer Brit Insurance Holdings plc has reiterated its determination to pay a full dividend this year despite now estimating a £182.5mn bill from hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma.
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Quanta Capital Holdings – a Bermudian headquartered (re)insurer established in 2003 – is believed to have lost two senior executives to the post-Katrina start-ups that are being formed on the island.
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Industry veteran Don Kramer has again chosen Shakespearian inspiration for the name of his $750mn+ Bermudian start-up reinsurer.
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Hurricane hit Bermudian reinsurer PXRE Group has bought $300mnn of reinsurance protection via a catastrophe bond following the third quarter storms.
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Willis has announced a second offering for the sale of 6.1 million shares currently held by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) and Fisher Capital.
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Omega Underwriting Holdings plc is the latest Lloyd's insurer to unveil a rights issue and plans to form a Bermudian platform to access short-tail catastrophe business following the trio of hurricanes that raged this autumn.
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American International Group (AIG) is to restate its financials for the second time this year after finding an additional £500mn of income through accounting errors.
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Berkshire Hathaway announced its third quarter net earnings were $586mn, or $381 a share, down 48.5 percent from the $1.14bn, or $739 a share, for the same period in 2004.
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Lloyd's insurer Hiscox plc has announced a £170mn rights issue and the formation of a $500mn capitalised Bermudian (re)insurer to exploit the post-storms rating environment.
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Talanx is reported to have trumped the aggressive US buy-out firm Cerberus Capital Management for the prize of fellow German insurer Gerling Group.
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It was a mixed bag as the big three global brokers announced their third-quarter results last week.
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Swiss reinsurer Converium will delay its third quarter results because it is restating its financial accounts after an internal review.
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Three Lloyd’s insurers all expected to announce post-Katrina fund raising initiatives updated their third quarter storm loss estimates last week, in moves widely seen as “deck-clearing” exercises.
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Lloyd’s have appointed the executive headhunter firms Russell Reynolds and Spencer Stuart to advise them on their search to replace the departing Nick Prettejohn.
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SVB’s chief executive Matthew Fosh welcomed the sale of its UK property underwriting agency Fusion to industry consolidator Towergate Underwriting Ltd last week.
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Former Lloyd’s underwriter Richard Brindle is to set up a new Bermudian (re)insurer to target the post hurricanes rating environment.
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Gallagher Re has swooped for former Guy Carpenter managing director John Pagliaccio to head up its Global Analytics team in the US.
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Stricken (re)insurer Alea Group Holdings more than doubled its hurricane Katrina loss estimates and warned shareholders that it is developing contingency plans for any businesses it cannot sell.
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2005 is the worst year on record for energy lines of insurance, according to Aon, but the broker says the market is strong enough to cope.
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The run-off Lloyd’s insurer Euclidian is understood to have settled with aggrieved Names who purchased stop loss insurance from a mutual The Underwriting Members Mutual Club Limited (Integer) which it managed.
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The world's largest reinsurer Munich Re said it was on course to meet its 12 percent return target for 2005 after reporting a third quarter profit of EUR513mn.
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RenaissanceRe CEO and chairman James Stanard quit last week over the ongoing investigations into the troubled reinsurer’s earnings restatement – a move which triggered a wave of negative rating agency actions.
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New Bermudian reinsurer New Castle Re has received its initial ratings, A- (Excellent) for financial strength and a- for issuer credit, from agency AM Best.