October 2015/4

Share price data on The Insurance Insider's universe of P&C (re)insurers

Allied World shares suffered last week as markets reacted to the carrier's mixed third quarter results.

The UK House of Lords has considered the Enterprise Bill less than a week after members of the London market wrote to the economic secretary to the Treasury Harriet Baldwin to stress that one of the proposals was "fundamentally flawed".

Travelers was forced to bolster its asbestos reserves by a further $224mn in the third quarter of 2015, as the shift towards strengthening reserves showed no sign of abating.

Global capacity for power and utilities lines remains buoyant at $4bn, with falling rates, new entrants and low catastrophe losses contributing to the soft market conditions, according to Marsh.

US cyber insurance business has seen double-digit rate increases at the latest renewal, as the market responds to recent large losses and a surge in demand for cover, according to new figures from Marsh.

US primary casualty rates are falling for most buyers for the first time in the current soft market, according to broker Willis.

Lower combined ratios, improving operating returns and falling catastrophe losses characterised Q3 earnings for the trio of major US insurers that reported last week.

US commercial P&C bellwethers Travelers, Ace and Chubb all reported the impact of an increasingly competitive domestic landscape when they opened the third quarter results season last week.

Developing a fully-fledged business integration plan and appointing an integration leader long before completion of an acquisition is absolutely key to successful M&A, senior London market executives agreed last week.

Besso is set to sell its capital markets unit Optex Group to Guernsey-domiciled asset manager Providence Global, Optex CEO Andrew Martin told sister publication Trading Risk.

New pastures for Donnell; Greenlight Re negative outlook; US wildfire losses; Investments hit Allied World; ANV signs partnership with PartnerRe; Price Forbes mines Lockton; Travelers shies away from M&A; Ferguson joins Price Forbes; Murphy exits IAG; Sciemus hires Welsh; Sciemus hires Welsh; Mosquera joins Arch Re; Mosquera joins Arch Re.