November 2006/3

Advent Capital Holdings has become the latest Lloyd’s (re)insurer to unveil plans for a Bermudian platform, Advent Re, which will write retrocessional business.

US giant American International Group (AIG) and CV Starr, the managing agency controlled by its former chairman and CEO Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, have settled the legal disputes stemming from the termination of their business relationship.

Liberty Syndicates - one of the largest Lloyd’s (re)insurers – has reduced its underwriting capacity for 2007 by £187mn.

Hiscox plc has become the first Lloyd’s insurer to carry out a sidecar transaction, confirming its Syndicate 33 has entered into a quota share reinsurance arrangement with $360mn Bermudian reinsurance vehicle Panther Re, a deal first revealed in the Octob

Willis Group Holdings Limited is to lose a member of its senior management as the broker confirmed that Tom Colraine is to leave the firm after 18 years.

Private equity giant 3i Group plc has hired a team led by Bruce Carnegie-Brown, the former Marsh executive who left the firm suddenly in May this year.

Lloyd’s insurer Chaucer Holdings Plc has launched a new Lloyd’s Syndicate that will provide some £75mn ($148mn) of US catastrophe capacity.

Amlin's decision to cut back on reinsurance spend appears to have paid off handsomely with the group's share price rising over 6 percent today (29 November) to a new high on the back of an upbeat trading statement today.

The Lloyd’s Corporation has brought in David Harris, a senior representative of the G6 group of London market insurers, as the three-hundred-year-old Society agrees a number of changes to improve the service it provides.

XL Capital, which announced the first of the post-Katrina sidecars Cyrus Re in November last year, has launched a new Cayman Islands special purpose reinsurance vehicle, Stoneheath Re.

UK regulator the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has fined Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary General Reinsurance UK £1.225mn for arranging two improper reinsurance transactions.

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

US insurer The Hartford Financial Services Group has issued a $247.5mn cat bond, Foundation II, to protect the company in the event of certain US natural catastrophe losses.

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.

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

US and EU Legal Developments

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.

Willis Group Holdings became the latest of the international brokers to respond to the post-Spitzer pinch, announcing the loss of 400 jobs as part of an efficiency drive on 25 October.

Finite Re spectre at Max Re; AXA securitises EUR350mn of life mortality risk; Hannover Re gets China approval for life; Oil spills after downgrade; ZFS boosts UK asbestos reserves by $500mn...

Hiscox $360mn sidecar Panther Re receives rating; Alchemy Partners looks to Lime Street for gold; R&SA in line with Q3s; buys UK agency; Endurance pulls out of offshore energy; UK trial date set for ‘Independent Three’; FSA accepts sidecar applications...

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.

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

While Bermudian (re)insurers uniformly booked strident third quarter results, as soaring cat rates post-Katrina combined with a virtually loss-free hurricane season...