September 2006/1

In a strategic volte-face, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group plc (JLT) has sold its US property casualty and employee benefits operations to Alliant Insurance Services Inc for $100mn (£53.3mn) little more than three years after deciding to build a US retail pl

In contrast to many of its Lloyd's competitors, the Bermuda-headquartered Catlin Group received a currency boost from the weak dollar which contributed to record net income of $147.3mn for the first half of 2006.

It was a tale of two markets for reinsurance specialist Benfield Group with disappointing news on its new corporate risks division being more than matched by impressive earnings growth in its US division on the back of the capacity crunch for catastrophe

"Class of 2005"reinsurer Flagstone Reinsurance Holdings announced today (7 September) that it has entered the aviation reinsurance market.

Brit Insurance Holdings plc became the latest London market insurer to report a drop in profits due to the weak US dollar, as it revealed today (5 September) its interim results.

Rating agency AM Best has removed European giant Hannover Re from review with negative implications and affirmed its financial strength rating of A (Excellent).

Analysts gave a mute assessment of SCOR's interim results despite a 42 percent rise in net profits at the French (re)insurer, sending the share price of the company down 6 percent.

Lloyd's insurer Wellington Underwriting plc revealed that further expansion is key to its strategic development when it announced its interim results on the 31 August.

Rating agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) has praised the operations of Equitas, the reinsurance vehicle set up in 1996 to reinsure Lloyd's 1993 and prior year exposures, on its 10th anniversary but also warned about the ongoing threat to the Society.

Despite acknowledging the intrinsic value of Marsh & McLennan Inc and the fact that its shares are undervalued, investors lack faith in the company's management, according to investment bank Morgan Stanley.

Lloyd's insurer Hiscox plc revealed on 1 September that it is close to setting up a Bermudian sidecar operation to reinsure its Lloyd's Syndicate 33.

If 2006 proves - as it has thus far - to be a benign natural catastrophe year, then Amlin's management duo of chief executive Charles Philipps and underwriting director Tony Holt will have again called the right numbers.