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Hanwha to close deal
Asia Pacific
Online Published Date:
16 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
694 - 16 August 2002
German life poo
Europe
Online Published Date:
16 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
694 - 16 August 2002
World insurance stock prices
Company/group
Currency
31/12/01
25/7/02
8/8/02
Change from 25/7/02 %
Capitalisation US$ mn
1: Hannover Re implemented a 3:1 stock split 12 July 2002. • 2: RenaissanceRe’s Board of Directors approved a 3:1 split of the..
Online Published Date:
16 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
694 - 16 August 2002
Company profile: Scor UK
London Market insurer and reinsurer Scor UK had one of its best years ever in 2001 in terms of premium income. Gross written premiums rose by 1% to £107mn (US$156mn) but premiums retained for own account grew by 46% to £51mn.
UK business..
Online Published Date:
16 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
694 - 16 August 2002
Company profile: Allianz AG
Allianz AG serves as both holding company and reinsurance carrier for the Allianz Group. The company generates most of its premium income from group subsidiaries and from other companies in which Allianz has an equity interest.
Allianz AG’s..
Online Published Date:
16 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
694 - 16 August 2002
Marsh & McLennan Companies
US financial services group Marsh & McLennan Companies (MMC) is active in the insurance and reinsurance brokerage, asset management, and consulting sectors through its subsidiaries of Marsh, Putnam and Mercer, respectively.
MMC saw its..
Online Published Date:
16 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
694 - 16 August 2002
Vietnam
Market premium volume grows by 50% despite economic slowdown
The Vietnamese insurance market posted strong growth in 2001, according to the country’s state-owned reinsurer Vietnam National Re (VINARE) which collects data on the local..
Online Published Date:
16 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
694 - 16 August 2002
Chilean insurers see sharp drop in their first half earnings
Despite an increase of 5.2 % in premium revenue, which reached the equivalent of US$1,265mn for the first six months of this year, and stable claim levels (down 1% at US$1,203mn), earnings in Chile’s insurance sector dropped sharply during the..
Online Published Date:
16 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
694 - 16 August 2002
Boonzaier quits top job at Tower
Failure to obtain a license in China, along with the NZ$3mn (US$1.68mn) cost establishing a presence in that country, were among reasons why the board of New Zealand’s Tower Group have parted company with chief executive James Boonzaier.
Mr..
Online Published Date:
16 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
694 - 16 August 2002
Aegon forced to issue profit warning
The Dutch insurer Aegon has been forced to issue a profit warning as a result of tough conditions in the US market and the strength of the euro. The company has said that 2002 profits could be as much as 35% below the €2.4bn (US$2.41 billion)..
Online Published Date:
16 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
694 - 16 August 2002
German insurers under investigation
Germany’s anti-cartel office last week ordered a raid on 13 of the country’s insurers. Allianz, Gerling, and Axa Konzern were among those targeted. The searches were approved by a lower court in Berlin.
The anti-cartel office was..
Online Published Date:
16 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
694 - 16 August 2002
Swiss Life looking to dispose of its German subsidiaries
Swiss Life is reported to have put its German operations up for sale. But the company declined to comment on the reports, and instead issued a statement saying that its business was sound and its customers’ pensions secure.
The life company,..
Online Published Date:
16 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
694 - 16 August 2002
Diversification, primary lines and preparing for the downturn
Although there is tremendous pressure on specialist insurance groups in the London market to be profitable, there is also a clear understanding between many of these groups and their investors that 2002 is an interim period: a time for managing..
Online Published Date:
16 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
694 - 16 August 2002
What future is there for the new start-ups?
Approximately US$8bn of the $20bn in new capital funnelled into insurance start-ups over the past nine months has come from private equity investors. Private equity firms that have invested new money into the insurance industry include a number of..
Online Published Date:
16 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
694 - 16 August 2002
Conseco to restucture debt for second time
North America
Online Published Date:
16 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
694 - 16 August 2002
Road, rail
26.7, derailment, fatality
New Zealand: one man died and another was seriously injured after an overnight freight train derailed in a remote area of eastern Taranaki. The seriously injured man was trapped inside the cab of the locomotive for more..
Online Published Date:
16 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
694 - 16 August 2002
23 July–5 August 2002
Late reports
19.7, Collapse of bridge, fatalities
China: nine people were killed and seven injured when a bridge in central China’s Hubei province collapsed suddenly. The victims died when the 200-foot bridge in Xiliuhe township gave way,..
Online Published Date:
16 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
694 - 16 August 2002
Company profile: Swan Insurance Company
Mauritian nonlife insurer Swan Insurance posted a pre-tax profit of Rs69mn (US$2.5mn) in 2001. This figure represented an increase of 10% over the previous year’s surplus of Rs63mn.
As part of the Swan Group, which also includes leading life,..
Online Published Date:
16 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
694 - 16 August 2002
Country profile: Egypt
Growth of state dominated market driven by aviation sector
The Egyptian insurance market grew by 4.8% to £E2.2bn (US$566mn) in the financial period ending 30 June 2001, according to the Egyptian Insurance Supervisory Authority’s Annual..
Online Published Date:
16 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
694 - 16 August 2002
Insurance costs rise steeply in Latin America
In May 2002 Venezuelan insurers’ premium income amounted to Bs221.4bn, making a total of Bs935bn since January. The top 10 companies account for 66% of the market. Companies’ profits for the same period amounted to Bs84bn, 65% of which..
Online Published Date:
16 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
694 - 16 August 2002
Colombia: first quarter insurance results
The Colombian insurance market’s premium income grew by 11.5% in real terms during the first quarter of 2002 over the same period in 2001.
According to the Banking Superintendency, most insurers, particularly those writing nonlife business,..
Online Published Date:
16 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
694 - 16 August 2002
Cuba urged to better protect itself against hurricane threat
Cuba is the most hurricane-prone territory in the insular Caribbean region, a fact that will, no doubt, cause insurance companies to heave a quiet sigh of relief, since they only do minimal business in the communist Caribbean state.
Foreign..
Online Published Date:
16 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
694 - 16 August 2002
Insurance premium income significantly up in Peru
According to the Peruvian Banking and Insurance Department, fire insurers’ premium income totalled US$53mn at the end of May, against $32mn over the same period in 2001, an increase of 66%. Fire rates had fallen to technically unacceptable..
Online Published Date:
16 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
694 - 16 August 2002
ACC in dispute with New Zealand doctors
New Zealand’s government controlled Accident Insurance and Compensation Corporation, (ACC) has called in Deloitte Consulting to try and resolve a long running dispute with doctors over the amount ACC pays them to register claims..
Online Published Date:
16 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
694 - 16 August 2002
China introduces liability cover for lawyers
Professional indemnity cover for lawyers is now available in China as lawyers become increasingly vulnerable to legal action by clients. They also see the new cover as a way of improving their own competitiveness.
The introduction of the cover..
Online Published Date:
16 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
694 - 16 August 2002
Singapore premium income falls
New business premiums in Singapore fell by 47% to S$1.8bn during the first six months of 2002.
Great Eastern Holdings, which is the only insurer listed on the Singapore stock market,. has reported a 6% drop in net earnings to S$79.5mn for the six..
Online Published Date:
16 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
694 - 16 August 2002
Regulators focus on better risk management
Insurance regulators in south east Asia are taking a different approach to industry oversight. They are now focusing on facilitating industry growth and improving the standards of risk management and corporate governance.
The Office of the..
Online Published Date:
16 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
694 - 16 August 2002
Toro/Fineco
Toro, the insurer belonging to the FIAT group, is to merge its life insurance business with that of Fineco, the subsidiary of Bank Capitalia (formerly Banca di Roma).
Toro subsidiaries Nuova Tirrena, Lloyd Italico Vita, and Augusta Vita, as well as..
Online Published Date:
16 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
694 - 16 August 2002
Russian update
The Russian insurance market resumed growth in the second quarter of 2002, after plateauing the previous three quarters. Total premiums in the first half of the year reached R153.2bn (US$4.94bn), up 18.9% over the same period in 2001, according to..
Online Published Date:
16 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
694 - 16 August 2002
Caribbean kidnap risk
A new and highly unwelcome risk has arisen in Trinidad and Tobago, the richest and most developed of the 15 Caribbean Community and Common Market (Caricom) countries – kidnapping.
This is a new phenomenon in the insular Caribbean and has, so..
Online Published Date:
16 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
694 - 16 August 2002
Inadequate reserves
The US property and casualty industry suffered its first ever net loss in 2001 as the result of sharply higher underwriting losses and substantial deterioration investment results, according to a recent report by the Insurance Services Office (ISO)...
Online Published Date:
16 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
694 - 16 August 2002
French mutuals up in arms
Plans to streamline France’s financial watchdogs face opposition from the country’s small mutuals.
The sweeping reforms, due to be finalised by the government this autumn, include merging the stock exchange regulator Commission des..
Online Published Date:
16 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
694 - 16 August 2002
Europe
Partner Re hit by floods
Bermudan reinsurer, Partner Re is expecting claims of around US$100mn from the recent floods in eastern and central Europe. The region has seen its heaviest rainfalls for more than a century. Austria, Germany and the Czech..
Online Published Date:
30 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
695 - 30 August 2002
North America
Moody’s questions use of RBC ratios
A new report by rating agency Moody’s on the US life insurance sector has controversially called into question the use by the industry of risk based capital ratios to assess companies’ solvency...
Online Published Date:
30 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
695 - 30 August 2002
World insurance stock prices
Company/group
Currency
31/12/01
8/8/02
22/8/02
Change from 8/8/02 %
Capitalisation US$ mn
© World Insurance Report
Ace
US$
40.15
31.82
34.00
6.9
8,922
AIG
US$
79.40
65.51
67.50
3.0..
Online Published Date:
30 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
695 - 30 August 2002
North America
Munich Re’s North American division saw a marked rise in premium income for the year with gross premiums rising by 21% to €4.4bn.
Munich Re said that a reduction in premiums due to termination of some business was more than offset by new..
Online Published Date:
30 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
695 - 30 August 2002
Munich Re Group
Munich Re, the world’s largest reinsurer, saw its net profit slump from €1.75bn in 2000 to €250mn in 2001 due to a heavy claims burden from large and very large losses. Positive one-off income of €830mn (arising from German..
Online Published Date:
30 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
695 - 30 August 2002
Companies set for profitability despite financial stresses and strains
Needless to say, a great deal has changed since the reinsurance industry last met in Monte Carlo. Table 3 of this survey, which is an analysis of incurred claims, operating expenses and net underwriting results, shows clearly the impact of the 11..
Online Published Date:
30 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
695 - 30 August 2002
State life insurer pressured by competition
Foreign life insurance companies are stepping up their operations in India at the same time as the state-run Life Insurance Corporation of India reports, for the very first time, a fall in its premium income. LIC’s income from the sale of..
Online Published Date:
30 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
695 - 30 August 2002
Travel insurance market blossoms as more Chinese travel by air
Chinese insurers are marketing travel insurance cover with unprecedented energy in an attempt to take advantage of the growing number of local people who now make use of air and other modes of transport.
The China Ping An Insurance Company is..
Online Published Date:
30 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
695 - 30 August 2002
Hungarian market
The Hungarian life and nonlife sectors performed very differently during the first half of 2002, according to data published by the insurers’ association Mabisz for its 24 member companies.
The membership of Mabisz expanded significantly when..
Online Published Date:
30 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
695 - 30 August 2002
Foreign insurers to bear flood damage costs
As the first rough estimates for the total insurance payout needed to cover claims after the recent floods came in last week, concerns began to grow among insurers operating in the Czech Republic about the short-term and long-term effects on..
Online Published Date:
30 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
695 - 30 August 2002
German authorities consider life fund
As reported in WIR
694, Germany’s financial services regulator, Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht (BAFin) is considering the establishment of a life insurance policyholders’ guarantee fund. Full details of the scheme..
Online Published Date:
30 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
695 - 30 August 2002
If raises $169mn in new capital from regional investors
Nordic nonlife insurer If has successfully raised SKr1.6bn (US$169mn) of new capital from its shareholders Sampo Plc, Storebrand, Skandia, Varma Sampo, and Skandia Liv. Some SKr1.0bn of this is in the form of equity capital, and SKr0.6bn in the form..
Online Published Date:
30 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
695 - 30 August 2002
Plenty of opportunities for Bermudian start-ups in buoyant reinsurance market
The new wave of Bermudian reinsurers set up in the aftermath of 11 September, have made their mark. Five of them have published interim results for the six months to 30 June which reveal that they wrote total gross premiums of $2.2bn. Yet they have..
Online Published Date:
30 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
695 - 30 August 2002
Asia Pacific
IAG produces underwriting profit
Insurance Australia Group (formerly known as NRMA), the biggest nonlife insurer in the country, suffered a net loss of A$25mn for the year ended 30 June as investment losses overshadowed an underwriting profit of..
Online Published Date:
30 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
695 - 30 August 2002
6–19 August 2002
Property and business interruption
11.8, fire, fatalities
France: a fire at an apartment building in north-east France apparently started by someone who turned up the gas to commit suicide killed one person. Two people were seriously injured in the..
Online Published Date:
30 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
695 - 30 August 2002
Chilean pension funds see fall in earnings
Chile’s seven remaining private pension funds (known as Afps) saw earnings (expressed in local currency, adjusted for inflation) drop by 12.9 % to US$53.5mn in the first half of 2002, with return on equity declining from 19.5% in January to..
Online Published Date:
30 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
695 - 30 August 2002
Colombia
The Colombian insurance industry wrote P2.4trn pesos (US$1.02bn) between January and June 2002, an increase of 18.2% over the same period last year, according to the monthly market report issued by the local insurers association, Fasecolda. Premium..
Online Published Date:
30 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
695 - 30 August 2002
Insurance rates rise by 30% in the Caribbean region
General insurance rates, even on the most profitable accounts, have risen by 30% in the Caribbean this year, according to leading Trinidad and Tobago broker, Risk Management Services (RMS).
On risks where claims have been made previously, the..
Online Published Date:
30 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
695 - 30 August 2002
Protests at increase in health premiums
A decision by the Taiwanese government to raise national health insurance premium rates has resulted in angry protests by 20,000 workers in Taipei. The furore was caused by a cabinet decision to approve a proposal from the department of health to..
Online Published Date:
30 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
695 - 30 August 2002
Six years of losses for Korean life companies
The Korean life insurance market has reported an operating loss for six years in a row. The total loss of South Korea’s 22 life insurers came to W660.4bn (US$550mn) for the 2001/2002 financial year which closed recently.
The reduction in..
Online Published Date:
30 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
695 - 30 August 2002
China embarks on the process of revising its insurance legislation
China has begun the process of implementing the promises it made to the World Trade Organisation with regard to the further liberalisation of its insurance market. The Standing Committee of China’s legislature, the National People’s..
Online Published Date:
30 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
695 - 30 August 2002
New reinsurance arrangements for mutuals
European Union directives are fast catching up with France’s mutual insurers. From the new year they will be required to meet the same financial and prudential standards as other insurers. This is expected to lead to a series of mergers, with..
Online Published Date:
30 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
695 - 30 August 2002
Axa surprises market with reduced fall in its net profitability
AXA has managed to produce a set of half yearly figures which have greatly reassured analysts. Net profit for the six months was down by 32% to €840mn (US$830mn) from €1.22bn in the corresponding period last year. This was significantly..
Online Published Date:
30 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
695 - 30 August 2002
Holistic approach to risk
The financial world is increasingly aware of the importance of risk management. Yet how many institutions can say with real confidence that they are managing the full spectrum of risks effectively?
Jeremy Scott
, chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers..
Online Published Date:
30 August 2002
Appeared in issue:
695 - 30 August 2002