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...

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.

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).

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.

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...

Canadian combine Fairfax Financial Holdings announced on 23 November estimates of $200mn pre-tax group losses caused by Hurricane Wilma. Although the figure falls to $112mn after tax Fairfax added that calculations could not be made with “a high...

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...

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has written a letter to the CEOs of broking firms in order to “remind you of your responsibilities to implement appropriate processes to enable your firm to manage conflicts of interest effectively”.

Lord Levene used his ‘Chairman’s View’ lecture to the Insurance Institute of London speech at Lloyd’s on 24 November to announce a three-year strategic plan for market reform to be published next January. The chairman also used his lecture to warn the...

Fast-expanding Lloyd’s insurer Omega last Thursday announced unchanged forecasts for the 2003 and 2004 years of account on its Syndicate 958, adding that it expects the widely loss-struck 2005 year to also yield a profit. The insurer predicts a 2003...

Lloyd’s is set to update its loss estimates for Hurricane Katrina later this week, at a time when investors in some of the quoted Lloyd’s insurers are becoming increasingly jittery about their exposures to the trio of storms.