November 2007/2

Banking interest grows with Goldman Sachs Lloyd's entry; Towergate firm swoops for Erinaceous teams; GA sells down Xchanging stake; Aviva in £350mn UK cost cutting programme; Canopius and Talbot make Lloyd’s Asia move...

Run-off insurer Highlands Insurance Company (UK) Ltd went into insolvent administration at the High Court on 1 November.

The fees collected by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the administrators of the defunct UK insurer Folksam UK, outweighs the collections made on behalf of creditors by almost £3mn, the latest report to creditors reveals.

Tawa plc, the UK quoted run-off consolidator, has acquired the US firm PXRE Reinsurance Co (PXRE US) from parent Argo Group International Holdings Ltd in a $114mn transaction.

Lloyd's own run-off arm Centrewrite has joined the queue of capacity prepared to offer reinsurance-to-close (RITC) quotes for "open year" syndicates.

London-based law firm Kendall Freeman has been looking for a partner for some time and so seasoned watchers were not surprised by its proposed tie-up with the US firm Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP (EAPD)...

The 21-day time limit in which the three former Independent Insurance Group plc (IIG) executives who received a total of 14 years in jail sentences could lodge an appeal will expire on 13 November.

Although Berkshire Hathaway reported a 64 percent hike in third-quarter net income, underwriting profits from its (re)insurance operation nearly halved, from $917mn to $486mn.

Bermudian (re)insurer XL Capital dismissed rumours of significant sub-prime related losses in its financial and professional lines portfolio last month, stating that the crisis provided "an attractive opportunity" for the class.

An attempt by Barclays Capital to rescue ailing structured investment vehicle (SIV) Mainsail II failed last month.

A new wave of fear gripped Wall Street this week, symbolised by the sub-prime related exposures of the monoline credit insurers to a new credit crisis, dubbed "Version 2.0" by industry insiders.

The imminent renewal of the flagship Lufthansa account looks set to underline the soft conditions in the airline market with underwriters apparently set to accept greater exposures for effectively a similar rate as last year.