November 2006/5

Despite losing three of its four underwriting heads this summer, Bermuda-domiciled Aspen Insurance Holdings (AIH) has seen its Bermudian and UK operating subsidiaries’ ratings affirmed by AM Best.

Lloyd’s insurer Kiln plc increased the forecasts on the bulk of its syndicates when it updated the 2004-5 years in a trading statement on 24 November.

AIM-listed Heritage Underwriting Agency plc announced on 24 November that it has raised £14.6mn in a share placement.

Quoted Lloyd’s insurer Chaucer Holdings plc posted an upbeat trading statement on 23 November with improvements on 2004 and 2005 forecasts and an optimistic outlook for next year.

Omega Underwriting Holdings plc’s move to Bermuda was endorsed by Numis Securities analyst Nick Johnson last week (22 November).

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

Resurgent French (re)insurer SCOR has been upgraded back to "A" territory again, this time by Fitch Ratings on 20 November, a day ahead of the closure of its acquisition of life reinsurer Revios.

Wellington plc, the Lloyd’s insurer that has agreed to the takeover overtures from rival Catlin Group, has been struck by resignations from its UK property team.

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.

Perhaps demonstrating the capital market’s restraint over supporting new reinsurance ventures, a trio of start-ups in the sector that were mooted to list on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) look increasingly unlikely to proc

The Lloyd’s Corporation has brought in David Harris - a senior representative of the G6 group of London market insurers – on secondment, 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.