November 2005/4

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...

Defunct insurer GoshawK Insurance Holdings plc has parachuted in a new management team and floated the possibility of a $15-20mn fund raising as it plans an orderly run-off. Michael Dawson – the former chief executive of Cox Insurance – has become...

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...

Gross premiums fell by 15 percent in the London market during 2004, reversing five years of rises. A report into insurance by International Financial Services London recorded gross premiums of £21.7bn for last year with Lloyd’s producing 54 percent...

HCC Insurance Holdings became the latest insurer to raise capital in the post-storms environment when it announced last week that it had agreed to sell 4,687,500 of common stock shares to Citigroup. The Houston headquartered insurance group also...

Montpelier Re – the Bermudian catastrophe specialist devastated by losses from the trio of US storms – said at the end of last week that it has entered into a 364-day $1bn letter of credit agreement with Bank of America.

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...

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...

Elizabeth Monrad, the former chief financial officer of General Re, has as resigned her role as CFO at New York-based financial services organisation TIAA-CREF. After receiving a Wells Notice on May 10 Monrad took a leave of absence in May “to...

American International Group (AIG) reported a 36.1 percent drop in income when it announced its restated third quarter results on 14 November. Net income was down to $1.71bn, or $0.65 per diluted share, during the quarter from $2.68bn, or $1.02 per...

The Lloyd’s deputy chairman has called on UK regulator the Financial Services Authority to strike fear into the London insurance market by outlining what it will do if the industry fails to drive through contract certainty next year.

Bermudian start-up Flagstone Re will be headed up by former Centre Re CEO David Brown, who will be chief executive of the new operation. According to reports, the company – launched by Bermuda-based hedge fund manager West End Capital Management...