October 2011/3

Bermudian run-off acquirer Catalina has completed its purchase of Residential Loss Control Holdings (RLCH) after obtaining regulatory approval from the Colorado and Hawaii Departments of Insurance.

The UK's Supreme Court has ruled that the Scottish Parliament's legislation on pleural plaques should stand, dashing the hopes of insurers that had mounted an appeal to have the legislation overturned.

Artemis Group has agreed to pay $60mn to settle a lawsuit with AIG over the acquisition of an investment portfolio from failed Californian insurer Executive Life dating back to the 1990s.

One challenge facing the senior partners of Clyde & Co and Barlow Lyde & Gilbert (BLG) is to plug the loss of key partners from BLG before the merger completes at the end of this month.

The merger of UK insurance legal heavyweights Clyde & Co and Barlow Lyde & Gilbert (BLG) will provide the insurance industry with a "Rolls Royce" law firm to rival the practices that serve the banking sector, according to the firms' senior partners.

QBE is the fourth Lloyd's managing agent holding a "green light" under the traffic light system the Society is using to measure Solvency II readiness.

A law aimed at ending a "tax loophole" that allows US (re)insurers to transfer premium income to offshore affiliates to avoid paying tax on profits was reintroduced into the US congress last week.

The newly created US Federal Insurance office is a step towards the creation of a national insurance regulator.

(Re)insurance groups with more than $50bn in total assets could be subject to heightened supervision under plans unveiled last week by the US Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC).

Cat bond prices have recovered from a mid-August slump that occurred around the time of Hurricane Irene, although they still remain below the levels seen before the March Tohoku earthquake.

Investors in the second Mariah Re tornado cat bond issuance stand to lose some or even all of their $100mn capital, while losses creep up into the first higher-lying issuance.

French insurance giant Axa has had a repeat success in the cat bond market with its second Calypso Capital transaction, kicking off what many brokers predict will be a bumper fourth quarter (see article on following page).

The ILS market is regaining its impetus after a mid-year slowdown, with forecasts of a $2bn-$2.5bn bumper fourth quarter.

Insurers seem broadly content to accept prices that are flat-to-slightly up for airline programme premiums, even though their exposures and limits are substantially higher, according to two major brokers in the sector.

Insurance Institute of London (IIL) president Martin South used his inaugural lecture to call attention to the London market's shortcomings in paying claims.

Terrorism insurance was the "wrong cover" for insureds that suffered property damage in the Arab Spring, as civil commotion of this type is excluded under the standard wording, two experts have said.

The price of debt issued by European (re)insurers is poised to rally after six months of falling valuations, as continental governments and regulators edge closer to intervening in a bid to shore up confidence in their faltering banks and sovereign debt.

Whereas 12 months ago delegates appeared to leave the annual National Association of Professional Surplus Lines Offices (Napslo) convention in Atlanta in a dark mood, last week's event in San Diego had a rather sunnier tone.

Despite a relatively quiet 2011 US hurricane season, a number of US-listed (re)insurers are likely to publish disappointing quarterly earnings later this month.

Japanese insurers are likely to take the largest losses from property damage and contingent business interruption (CBI) claims caused by the recent severe flooding in Thailand. The floods have caused extensive damage and disrupted production at a swathe of industrial facilities, our sister title Inside FAC reported last week.

BP and Anadarko Petroleum Company have agreed to settle all claims relating to the Macondo well blowout and Deepwater Horizon rig disaster, both companies announced.

Omega's board has acknowledged that it has held talks with its suitor Haverford about concerns that some of its institutional shareholders have raised about the terms of the deal.   

Re has gone from having three official suitors to just one and then back up to three again.

Aim-listed broker Thompson Heath and Bond (THB) has extended the deadline for finalising the details of its takeover by US wholesaler AmWINS by a month to 14 November, after the two sides failed to conclude negotiations in time.