October 2005/6

Hiscox plc is set to become the latest Lloyd's insurer to establish a Bermudian licensed (re)insurer, Insider Week can reveal.

Fast-expanding insurance consolidator Towergate Partnership is set to buy SVB’s underwriting agency Fusion Insurance in a deal worth up to £25mn, The Insurance Insider can reveal. After several months of talks, Towergate and SVB have agreed terms...

Former Lloyd’s underwriter Richard Brindle is to set up a new Bermudian (re)insurer to target the post hurricanes rating environment. According to sources, the new (re)insurer will be called Lancashire – the county of Brindle’s birth – and will...

Shares in UK quoted GoshawK have collapsed almost 40 percent today to 5.75p as the company is no longer able to get access to funds in its Bermudian reinsurance arm Rosemont Re – which became the first industry casualty of this year’s storms when it...

RenaissanceRe CEO and chairman James Stanard has resigned over the ongoing investigations into the troubled reinsurer’s earnings restatement, the company revealed late yesterday (1 November).

Kiln plc has followed fellow Lloyd's insurer Amlin plc in announcing a rights issue to raise funds for the post-hurricanes rating environment. According to the insurer, it will raise £72.8mn net of expenses which it will use to acquire further...

Bermudian cat specialist IPCRe has had its financial strength downgraded from A+ to A and its credit ratings from aa- to a by AM Best, becoming the latest victim of the rating agencies’ get tough approach to (re)insurers hit hardest by hurricane losses.

Reinsurance giant Swiss Re confirmed it will not make its earnings target this year as it faces claims of $750mn from hurricanes Rita and Wilma. The company said today (2 November) that while its over-the-cycle target of 10 percent earnings growth...

Lloyd’s insurer SVB estimates that Hurricane Wilma will cost the group between £5mn-£10mn, on top of the loss burdens of Katrina and Rita. The insurer had already estimated a net cost of £25mn from Katrina based on an industry wide loss of $40bn...

Lloyd’s insurer Beazley Group plc has doubled its Katrina loss estimate to $100mn and estimated further losses of $30mn to the group from hurricanes Rita and Wilma. In a statement to the London Stock Exchange this morning, Beazley explained that...

Lloyd’s insurer Amlin is to form a $1bn capitalised Bermudian reinsurance company to take advantage of the post-storms rating environment.

The possibility of a wave of lawsuits over the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center emerged last week when a New York court found the City’s Port Authority negligent over failing to prevent the attack.

In common with many of its fellow Bermudians, reinsurer Aspen has revealed dramatic third quarter 2005 losses after the recent spate of natural catastrophes. In its 27 October earnings release, the company said it was looking at a loss of $362mn for...

US reinsurer Odyssey Re has reported a third-quarter net loss of $96.6mn after suffering a post-tax loss of $178.8mn due to hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The loss was a significant increase from Odyssey’s $18mn deficit for the same period 12 months...

Former American International Group (AIG) chief executive, Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, has sent a letter to friends and associates asking permission to use their names as part of a PR operation to repair his image, reports The Wall Street Journal.

CNA, the seventh biggest commercial insurer in the US, suffered a negative set of Q3 results after incurring a post-tax loss of $294mn from the impact of recent catastrophes, primarily Hurricane...

Nascent broking group Integro has hired two former Willis executives to head a newly formed capital risk management division. Ralph D Kneisley and Joseph J Fusco have become the joint leaders of Integro’s Capital Project Risk group which will...

Bermudian based insurance giant XL Capital saw its shares fall sharply last week after estimating a third quarter post-tax catastrophe loss of $1.47bn. XL – which had previously said it expects around 1.75 percent of the market-wide Katrina loss...

AM Best’s decision to downgrade Montpelier Re despite the reinsurer raising $600mn in the aftermath of Katrina is the latest example of the get tough approach of the rating agencies. It is also good news for the proposed start-up reinsurers who are...

Catastrophe modelling firm Risk Management Services (RMS) has increased its estimate for insured losses caused by Hurricane Wilma to a range of $8bn to $12bn. The revised estimate covers onshore damage caused by windstorm and coastal surge as well...

Bermuda headquartered (re)insurer Quanta has joined the growing list of companies increasing their estimates of losses incurred as a result of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. In an announcement on 27 October, Quanta said it now believed its total...

Lloyd’s insurer Hiscox plc painted an upbeat picture of the company’s prospects despite increasing its net loss estimates by $10mn on Hurricane Katrina. In an announcement to the London Stock Exchange this morning (31 October), the company said it...

Lloyd’s insurers are set to follow their Bermudian rivals by going to the capital markets to raise funds, Insider Week can reveal. But in contrast to many of the specialist Bermudian based property catastrophe reinsurers, most of the Lloyd’s...

Ed Noonan, the former chief executive of America Re, is to head the latest reinsurer set to establish itself on Bermuda. Validus Holdings Ltd is currently raising funds via a US private placement and, according to well placed sources, is being...