November 2005/4

Bermudian (re)insurer XL Capital revealed late last night (23 November) that it is set to lose out in a dispute with Credit Suisse over its acquisition of certain Winterthur International insurance operations that could hit fourth quarter results to the t

Lord Levene used his ‘Chairman’s View’ lecture to the Insurance Institute of London speech at Lloyd’s today to warn the industry against apathy in the face of the looming contract certainty d-day. Levene said: “Contract Certainty is a good thing, we...

Shares in Lloyd’s insurer Wellington Underwriting plc have fallen more than 6 percent in trading today after the company suddenly increased its Katrina loss estimates by a further $100mn. By mid-afternoon, Wellington’s shares were trading down over...

Bermudian headquartered Quanta Capital Holdings has parted company with its founding chief executive Tobey Russ.

The fast-expanding broking group Integro Ltd has established a London market foothold with the acquisition of Lloyd’s broker Humphreys Haggas Sutton & Co.

Embattled (re)insurance group Alea Group Holdings has sold the renewal rights of its US primary programme business written by its Alea Alternative Risk (AAR) subsidiary to New York based AmTrust Group in a deal likely to be worth between $20mn-$40mn.

Avian flu could cost insurers up to $200bn if the virus jumped from birds to humans sparking a global pandemic. A range of losses from $71.3bn to $200bn in insured losses is the worst-case scenario according to research from analysts...

Greenlight Re will become the twelfth new reinsurance start-up since Hurricane Katrina after being announced by Greenlight Capital boss, David Einhorn, at a New York conference last Tuesday (15 November). The new company has already received a...

Bermudian (re)insurer AXIS Capital revealed today (21 November) further cash raising initiatives with the sale of £250mn in preference shares, less than a week after it announced the sale of 6.8 million common shares in a block trade and taking its...

Swiss insurer Zurich Financial Services (ZFS) reported a record operating performance for the first nine months of 2005 when it released its interim results on 17 November. Net income was up by 21 percent to $2.26bn for the period with earnings per...

Reinsurance giant Munich Re has bought EUR110mn of reinsurance protection for Western European windstorms with the private placement of catastrophe bonds called Aiolos. Based on a wind-speed trigger and with a term from 18 November 2005...

US politicians brought some relief to the (re)insurance industry on Friday (18 November) with the news that the US Senate had approved a bill to extend the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) for a further two years until the end of 2007.