November 2011/4

Mark Byrne's Haverford vehicle has confirmed a reduced partial offer for Omega Insurance at a fixed price of 74p per share, as the would-be acquirer contends that its previous bid lapsed yesterday (30 November).

Quoted Lloyd's insurer Hardy has confirmed the widespread market rumours of sizeable Thai flooding loss exposures and put itself up for sale.

The circumstances for a turn in pricing in the direct and facultative markets may all be currently coming into alignment, but a broad or sustained market turn is not a realistic prospect.

Legacy acquirer Catalina Holdings has hired Martin Kauer as CFO/COO for its subsidiary Glacier Re under the firm's plan to expedite its run-off and expand its operations in continental Europe.

The captive reinsurance mutual for YMCA organisations across the US has been successfully liquidated on a solvent basis.

The South of England protection and indemnity (P&I) club has been put into liquidation after a bitter court battle with the Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA) over its solvency and corporate governance.

Transatlantic Re is being sued by a shareholder over the company's $3.4bn takeover deal with Alleghany.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged another long-term employee of Bernie Madoff for facilitating the work of the swindler's massive Ponzi scheme.

Harleysville Mutual Insurance Company is being sued by a policyholder over its planned buyout by Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company.

Several Lloyd's insurers including Brit, Chaucer and Catlin are being sued by Proton Bank and Blanca Shipmanagement Company over a disputed $35mn marine claim.

Despite the plethora of broker poaching cases that make their way to the UK courts, it is possible to hire whole teams without falling foul of the law, the London market was told today (28 November).

Despite growing fears about Eurozone defaults, a near-term root and branch rethink of the risk-free treatment of European sovereign debt under Solvency II rules is unlikely, predicts Fitch.

Hiscox's Bermuda platform has become the latest reinsurer to qualify for reduced collateral requirements in the state of New York.

A planned $125mn cat bond from California workers' compensation insurer State Compensation Insurance Fund (SCIF) and a repeat deal from French reinsurer Scor are set to take total issuance past the $4bn mark this year.

Collateralised retrocession writer Catco has attracted at least $375mn from a new fundraising round, putting the firm's reinsurance funds under management at nearly $900mn in its first year.

The old underwriting adage that good years get better while bad years gets worse seems to have been borne out by developments in syndicate forecasts for the past two years of account at Lloyd's (re)insurers.

The wave of civil unrest and revolutions across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) will have a negative impact on the predicted growth of the developing insurance markets in the region, according to AM Best.

Optimism on rates broadly outweighed third quarter combined ratio pain across US and Bermudian P&C (re)insurers, causing a strong rise in stocks within the sector through the reporting season.

Soft market conditions and higher policy limits, aircraft values and liability settlements are driving aviation underwriters toward a "perfect storm", according to a report from broker Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT)'s aerospace division.

US P&C insurer Alleghany will assume the management of Transatlantic Re's $13.7bn investment float and determine the allocation of capital between subsidiaries, but the reinsurer will otherwise retain the right to chart its own path.

Tokio Marine's net loss from the Great East Japan earthquake has grown from 90bn yen ($1.2bn) to 150bn yen ($1.9bn) in the months following the catastrophe.

Following the Thai flooding, attention has so far been focused on reinsurance losses from the Japanese big three or regional (re)insurers, but the international cat programmes of global insurers are expected to take losses too.

French state-owned reinsurer CCR is the first of the international reinsurers to publicly withdraw from Thailand following the devastating flooding which some (re)insurers are now privately estimating could cost the industry over $20bn.

Solvency II will cost the UK insurance industry £1.9bn from 2008 to 2013 according to a consultation paper Transposition of Solvency II released this month by UK regulator the Financial Services Authority (FSA).