November 2005/5

Bermudian (re)insurer XL Capital today (1 December) announced mammoth capital raising plans which will see it sell $2.15bn in ordinary shares along with $650mn from an offering of equity security units.

UK listed broker Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group plc (JLT) has ended its year-long search for a new group chief executive with the internal appointment of Dominic Burke to the position. In an announcement this morning (1 December), the company also...

Chances of 2005 profit slim, as 2006 capacity up 7 percent to £14.7bn Losses to the Lloyd’s market from the trio of devastating hurricanes this year will top $5bn, according to latest estimates revealed early this morning (30 November).

Despite assurances by senior management that XL Capital would fight to hold on to its ratings, Standard & Poor’s (S&P) dealt the company a blow late Monday (28 November) with the news that it was downgrading the (re)insurer by a notch.

Lloyd's reinsurer Advent Capital has agreed a £15mn unsecured debt facility with a US investment bank in addition to the heavily discounted £30mn equity issue the firm announced last week.

Captive insurers can give companies long-term control over risk and protect companies from the vagaries of market cycles according to speakers at the industry’s first The Captives Conference. The conference was held in London on 23 November and...

European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes has delayed her inquiry into commercial insurance markets until next year because of the renewal season. Kroes, who announced in June that she was to examine business insurance practices, has said her...

Numis Securities has upgraded its earnings forecasts on Lloyd’s (re)insurers Amlin and Hiscox following their plans to form Bermudian (re)insurers. In a research note, Numis analyst Nick Johnson said he viewed the decisions “to expand outside...

Lloyd’s listed insurer Chaucer published its latest quarterly syndicate forecasts for the 2003 and 2004 years of account last Friday (25 November) revealing improvement on 2003 alongside a 15 percent increase in its total underwriting interests...

Bermudian (re)insurer XL Capital has said that its $500mn quota-share sidecar initiative will be called Cyrus Re and remains on track, having obtained its Bermuda Monetary Licence. XL president and CEO Brian O’Hara confirmed that the hedge fund...

Maurice “Hank” Greenberg received a welcome Thanksgiving present last week when New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer confirmed that he would not pursue criminal charges against the former American International Group chief executive.

In a pioneering move, Lloyd’s is set to form an Islamic reinsurance syndicate to target Shari’a compliant business which will be managed by Creechurch Holdings Ltd, Insider Week can exclusively reveal. According to sources, the takaful reinsurance...