- Insurance Insider News
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18th May 2012 22.00 pm
Global (re)insurance stocks hit hard by Greek Euro fears
Global (re)insurance stocks closed down heavily this week as political turmoil weighed heavily on equities with euro exposures. Unsurprisingly the pain was particularly dealt out to European stocks, especially composite insurers with life insurance operations and exposure to European sovereign debt, with the sector performing badly even compared to a broad global sell off of equities. UK composite Aviva was among the worst affected, as European worries added to its own self-inflicted troubles that contributed to the ousting of its...
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18th May 2012 19.40 pm
Best affirms A- Rating for Flagstone but negative outlook sticks
Rating agency AM Best has rewarded the self-help work by management at Flagstone Re by affirming the reinsurer's credit rating, citing significant progress in de-risking the balance sheet and improving enterprise risk management. However, though Flagstone had its financial strength rating A- affirmed, Best stopped short of removing it from negative outlook due to need to demonstrate the overhauled business model could bring enhanced returns after a period of underperformance compared to its peers. The rating agency also affirmed the...
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18th May 2012 16.00 pm
Kiln narrows 2011 profit forecasts
Kiln has reduced the profit forecasts for most of its four non-aligned syndicates for the 2010 and 2011 years of account. It expects to make a profit from its flagship Syndicate 510 for the 2011 year of account. The mid-point profit forecast has fallen slightly from 4.8 percent to 4.5 percent of its £922mn capacity. However, the lower end of the forecast range increased to a profit of 2 percent from the previous quarter's -0.2 percent loss. However, one of...
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18th May 2012 15.00 pm
3i marks down ACR valuation by 19 7% as Berkshire quota share confirmed
UK private equity group 3i has marked down the valuation of its equity stake in Singapore-headquartered Asia Capital Re Holdings (ACR) by 19.7 percent following an "unprecedented year" for natural catastrophes in the Asia-Pacific region. In its annual results, released yesterday (17 May), 3i disclosed that at the end of March 2012 it valued its stake in ACR at £118mn, down £29mn from its most recent valuation of £147mn for a 31.1 percent stake at the end of September 2011....
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18th May 2012 10.00 am
Japanese big three add $800mn to Thai loss estimates
Japan's big three insurers have bolstered their reserves for last year's Thai floods by $800mn to take their combined net loss to $6.39bn, but none mentioned the size of their gross losses in their disclosure documents. MS&AD, Tokio Marine and NKSJ made the announcements in their results for the year to 31 March, a day after The Insurance Insider reported that evidence of loss creep from Japanese cedants had emerged. MS&AD, by the far the most loss-struck of the trio,...
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18th May 2012 09.10 am
RenRe retro sidecar expected to renew
RenaissanceRe's temporary retro sidecar Upsilon Re is likely to continue writing business into 2013, the property cat specialist said. Chief underwriting officer Kevin O'Donnell commented on the vehicle, which was launched for 1 January to take advantage of the temporary dislocation in the retro market, at the recent Goldman Sachs Insurance Symposium. "Whether Upsilon is needed by the market or not is something we'll determine on an annual basis," he said. "With what I'm seeing now Upsilon should be able...
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18th May 2012 08.50 am
Japan's big three expected to reveal further Thai losses
Thai flood losses on the overseas per risk treaties of the Japanese big three (re)insurers have deteriorated still further, The Insurance Insider can reveal. Official notifications to underwriters are still pending, but according to broking and underwriting sources further examination of the claims is pushing losses higher than previously notified. The current reported net loss for MS&AD, Tokio Marine and NKSJ is 467.5bn yen ($5.8bn) and it is thought that they will disclose details of how their increased gross losses...
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18th May 2012 08.50 am
Upsilon likely to continue into 2013 RenRe
RenaissanceRe's temporary retro sidecar Upsilon Re is likely to continue writing business into 2013, the property cat specialist said. Chief underwriting officer Kevin O'Donnell commented on the vehicle, which was launched for 1 January to take advantage of the temporary dislocation in the retro market, at the recent Goldman Sachs Insurance Symposium. "Whether Upsilon is needed by the market or not is something we'll determine on an annual basis," he said. "With what I'm seeing now Upsilon should be able...
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18th May 2012 08.40 am
DLA Piper hires Dewey's Hong Kong team
DLA Piper's Hong Kong office has hired two insurance, corporate and regulatory partners from beleaguered law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf, along with around three associates. Joyce Chan, principal of Dewey's Hong Kong associated firm Joyce Sze Ho Chan & Co, will lead the group of new Dewey lawyers along with Heng Loong Cheong, a corporate lawyer specialising in public and private M&A. Chan and Cheong have followed in the steps of insurance law veteran William Marcoux, who moved from Dewey...
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17th May 2012 18.20 pm
Aviva stock falls 5% as placed on watch negative
London-listed insurer Aviva's share price fell 4.7 percent to 267.7p on 17 May, after a tumultuous day in which its proposed strategic review and interim management statement were poorly received by the market. Ratings agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) also put the insurer on Credit Watch with negative implications, citing greater risk and uncertainty surrounding the company's search for a new CEO and the outcome of its strategic review. Earlier today Aviva said it could take the rest of the...
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17th May 2012 16.00 pm
Fitch gives qualified welcome to Lloyd's Vision 2025
Ratings agency Fitch has said that the emerging markets strategy at the heart of Lloyd's Vision 2025 strategic plan is a net positive, albeit observing that it does carry additional risk. The agency said today that the syndicated nature of Lloyd's gives it an advantage over individual companies when tapping into new markets, both in terms of sourcing new capital as well as underwriting large complex risks. In addition to its subscription form, the Society's exploitation of the current structure...
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17th May 2012 14.00 pm
Fresh evidence of Thai loss creep emerges
Thai flood losses on the overseas per risk treaties of the Japanese big three (re)insurers have deteriorated still further, The Insurance Insider can reveal. Official notifications to underwriters are still pending, but according to broking and underwriting sources further examination of the claims is pushing losses higher than previously notified. The current reported net loss for MS&AD, Tokio Marine and NKSJ is 467.5bn yen ($5.8bn) and it is thought that they will disclose details of how their increased gross losses...
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17th May 2012 13.40 pm
DLA Piper hires two Dewey insurance partners in Hong Kong
DLA Piper's Hong Kong office has hired two insurance, corporate and regulatory partners from beleaguered law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf, along with around three associates. Joyce Chan, principal of Dewey's Hong Kong associated firm Joyce Sze Ho Chan & Co, will lead the group of new Dewey lawyers along with Heng Loong Cheong, a corporate lawyer specialising in public and private M&A. Chan and Cheong have followed in the steps of insurance law veteran William Marcoux, who moved from Dewey...
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17th May 2012 11.20 am
Hardy confirms halving of cat premium
Hardy Underwriting, currently being sold to CNA, cut its top line by 21.5 percent in the first quarter as it pulled back on catastrophe risk and exited other lines of business. Its interim management statement revealed that the biggest reduction came in its property treaty book, where Q1 gross written premium (GWP) halved from £76mn to £37mn - as previously reported by The Insurance Insider following the CNA earnings call. The aggregate limit deployed has fallen even further than this...
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17th May 2012 10.30 am
Aviva posts stable Q1 as CEO search looks set to drag
Aviva warned that its search for a new CEO to replace Andrew Moss could take the rest of the year as it released its first quarter interim management statement. Operating profit for the quarter was marginally down compared to the same period last year due to the spin-off of the under-performing Delta Lloyd business and the sale of RAC. The firm said that adjusting for these factors, operating profit marginally increased. The group's EU Insurance Groups Directive solvency surplus was...
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17th May 2012 10.20 am
Sale of BP Marsh stake values Hyperion at £165mn
BP Marsh & Partners has announced that its wholly owned subsidiary BP Marsh & Co Limited has sold 1,193,500 shares in international broking and managing general agency group Hyperion for £4,535,300 in cash. The sale values Hyperion at £165mn and the firm said the sale price meant that BP Marsh had achieved a 40.4 percent return since it made its original investment in November 1994. The London-quoted insurance venture capitalist will retain a 16.19 percent shareholding in Hyperion after the...
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17th May 2012 09.00 am
Amlin expands top line 10%
Amlin increased gross written premiums by 10.5 percent over the first four months of the year to £1.44bn as trading conditions became "considerably more encouraging". The reinsurer said more than 75 percent of its underwriting portfolio had achieved rate increases in the period, with the overall premium increase on renewing business standing at 4.3 percent. Given that Amlin has included April renewals in its interim management statement, it is difficult to compare results to its peers, but these are in...
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17th May 2012 01.20 am
IAG puts 'for sale' sign on loss struck UK business
Australian insurer IAG is considering selling its UK business as part of a strategic review of its underperforming unit, which has been ravaged by the challenging conditions of the UK motor market. Possible scenarios include selling all or part of the business, the firm said. Continuing the programme of self-help and or refocusing the business around a more specialised motor offering were are also options that will be considered, along with potentially other scenarios. "One of our key strategic priorities...
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16th May 2012 22.30 pm
Scor doubles its contingent capital coverage to EUR150mn
Global reinsurer Scor has doubled the amount of event-driven contingent capital it can draw down on in response to large natural catastrophe losses to EUR 150mn from EUR75mn. The extra EUR75mn layer of coverage is an event-driven contingent capital equity line that allows Scor to issue shares in response to a pre-defined natural catastrophe trigger. It is in addition to the existing EUR75mn layer of contingent capital that Scor implemented in July 2011. The coverage, agreed with Swiss bank UBS,...
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16th May 2012 18.00 pm
Lancashire's share price slumps on profit taking
Shares of short-tail specialist Lancashire have fallen nearly 8 percent over the past two weeks, ending a period of rocket-fuelled performance for the London-based (re)insurer. Its robust outperformance during the catastrophe-riddled 2011, along with market commentary on the potential upside in prices in its core shorter tail lines - especially retro and property catastrophe - helped push its share price 20 percent higher from the start of the year to an 825 pence peak on 3 May (see graph). This...
