Liu Feng, chairman of Asia’s largest reinsurance company, China Re, has announced that the company is set to make further acquisitions to facilitate its plans for public listing (IPO).
Liu said that China Re will go ahead with its planned IPO, but refused to disclose when this will take place.
He added that the company plans to […]

Insurance companies are bracing themselves for a major hit after the US National Hurricane Centre announced that the centre of Hurricane Gustav will hit New Orleans later today, 3 days after the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina that devastated the city in 2005.
Residents in the city have been ordered to evacuate from their homes.
With maximum sustained […]

Groupama Insurances has released its interim financial results for the first half of this year.
Post-tax profits remained almost steady at ￡15m (down marginally from ￡15.1m in the corresponding period the previous year).
The firm recorded good return of capital employed of 22%, on an annualised basis.
Groupama also enjoyed a good rate of revenue growth, which increased […]

Dire weather continues in the United Kingdom, with this summer’s rainfall far exceeding averages and leading to a large number of events being cancelled.
Chris Rackliffe, a contingency underwriter for Beazley, explains that although 2007 was exceptionally bad (due to the summer flooding), 2008 has also been worse than average.
Two consecutive years of bad weather for […]

Legal & General has enhanced its immediate protection cover facility by doubling the coverage period from 30 to 60 days and its business critical illness cover up to ￡1m.
Immediate cover exists for those who are waiting for an application to be accepted as they undergo financial or medical underwriting.
Those for whom immediate protection coverage may […]

Allianz has sold its Dresdner Bank subsidiary to Commerzbank, Germany’s second-largest bank.
The cash and shares transaction values Dresdner at ?9.8 billion, Allianz having paid ?24 billion for the business in 2001.
Allianz bought the bank because it planned to cross-sell its insurance products to Dresdner’s customers and take advantage of growth in the European pensions sector.
However, […]

Lloyd’s insurer Chaucer Holdings Plc has posted its first half results, with pre-tax profits down 92% on year to ￡3.9 million.
This is compared to pre-tax profit of ￡47.9 million for the first half of 2007, and is the worst result for the company in two years.
The London-based company was hit by reduced returns from investments […]

Bermuda-based Castlepoint Re has agreed terms to acquire property and casualty insurer Hermitage Insurance Group in a deal worth around $135 million.
Castlepoint will pay $27 million in cash plus the adjusted closing book value of Hermitage to the seller, a subsidiary of Brookfield Asset Management, Inc.
Hermitage is a specialist property and casualty insurance holding company […]