November 2006/3

Bermudian-headquartered (re)insurer Lancashire Holdings Ltd said it is looking forward to a “healthy” 2007 in a trading statement released yesterday (21 November).

The sudden departure of HCC Insurance Holdings chairman and CEO Stephen Way has prompted a mixed approach from the two main rating agencies. While Standard & Poor’s swiftly affirmed the Houston headquartered firm’s financial strength...

RK Harrison Insurance Brokers Ltd, the independent London market brokers, will appoint the former Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group executive Dominic Collins to replace its retiring executive chairman, Richard Corfield.

It took 18 months for ACE Ltd to persuade the Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner to approve the sale of its asbestos riddled Brandywine subsidiaries, so R&SA shareholders might be in for a long wait before they see their US legacy business spun-off.

Creditors for all 16 of the participants in the proposed WFUM pool scheme of arrangement met in London on 27 October.

The Corporation’s chief executive Richard Ward is understood to be close to ordering a restructuring of its senior management and reporting structures, according to sources.

Swiss reinsurer Converium’s share price continued its upward trajectory after announcing the $295mn sale of its US operations to National Indemnity last month.

Despite comfortably outpacing third quarter earnings projections, Bermudian rivals ACE Limited and XL Capital met very different responses from analysts at Morgan Stanley.

Despite the whispers of smooth-talking bankers, merging two insurance companies is rarely easy – and this is often multiplied in the case of Lloyd’s insurers where management egos and the existence of obdurate Lloyd’s Names add further complications.

Speculation that UK broker Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group plc was considering a strategy of focussed regional growth was quashed at the end of last month when the company announced a major restructuring that includes greater integration of its two separatel

USI Holdings’ admission at the end of October that it was mulling a private equity buyout offer reflects a growing interest in the broking sector from the investment community.

Bermudian (re)insurer Everest Re Group faces the prospect of a downgrade from Standard & Poor’s (S&P) after the rating agency revised the outlook on its AA- rating from stable to negative on 13 November.