September 2006/2

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

Analysts offered a muted response to 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.

Two months after Jardine Lloyd Thompson’s (JLT) proposed takeover of rival Heath Lambert fell through, analysts have turned their attention to the quoted UK broker’s prospects as an independent entity.

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

Sidecar vehicles have now raised more than $4bn in capital since they roared into fashion in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina last year.

The going rate for a privately owned broker is typically one to one-and-a-half times annual broking revenues, which suggests US broker Lockton Company and the private equity firm Stone Point Capital LLC bought Alexander Forbes’ international arm...

UK professional indemnity (PI) rates are under pressure and nowhere is this more keenly felt than solicitors’ PI.

The hard-pressed retrocessional sector – which was decimated by 2005’s storm losses – is now dependent upon securitised capacity for 30-40 percent of its market, a figure likely to reach 50 percent by the end of next year.