- Practice Areas
- Publication Type
- Resources
- Practice Areas
- Publication Type
- Resources
- Home/Publications/World Insurance Report
World insurance stock prices
Company/group
Currency
2000 year-end
31/05/01
14/06/01
% change
from 31/05/01
Capitalisation US$mn
source: iiudata
Ace
US$
42.44
38.75
39.14
1.0
9,082
AIG
US$
98.56
81.00
80.75
(0.3)
188,230
Allianz..
Online Published Date:
02 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
665 - 22 June 2001
Aviation
17.5, aircraft crash
Iran: a Yakovlev Yak-40 aircraft carrying Iran’s transport minister and 6 parliament members crashed in northern Iran, killing all 29 on board. After disappearing early in the morning, the aircraft was located several..
Online Published Date:
08 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
664 - 08 June 2001
Natural catastrophes
18.5, storms
Haiti: 21 people died, 11 were injured and 5 were missing after 2 days of torrential rains that swept away victims in rising waters and caused flimsy homes to collapse. 42 houses were destroyed, 267 homes were damaged and 1,014 families..
Online Published Date:
08 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
664 - 08 June 2001
Liability awards and settlements
16.5, asbestos award
US: a Ramsey County, Minnesota jury has awarded $8mn to former Koch refinery worker Joseph Akin and his family, whose attorneys argued that his exposure to asbestos at the Rosemount refinery caused him to develop..
Online Published Date:
08 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
664 - 08 June 2001
Property, business interruption
15.5, bloodstock losses
US: congressmen in Kentucky asked the US Department of Agriculture to help find a solution to the foetal loss syndrome affecting the state’s bloodstock industry. The Kentucky Disease Diagnostic Centre reported that the..
Online Published Date:
08 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
664 - 08 June 2001
Marine
15.5, negligence suit
Singapore: fv Chian Horng No1,
undergoing repairs in a shipyard, was damaged badly in a fire and sank in 1996. Now her owner, Chian Horng Fishery, is suing the ship repairer and its subcontractor for negligence. It is also..
Online Published Date:
08 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
664 - 08 June 2001
Late reports
11.5, tug capsize
US: pilot error probably caused m tug Bay Titan
to capsize in the Delaware River, causing the death of 1 crew member and blocking shipping traffic in the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal for up to a week. Coastguard officials were..
Online Published Date:
08 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
664 - 08 June 2001
World insurance stock prices
Company/group
Currency
2000 year-end
17/05/01
31/05/01
% change from 17/05/01
Capitalisation US$mn
source:..
Online Published Date:
08 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
664 - 08 June 2001
Company profile: Sirius International
Sirius International blamed a 40% fall in its consolidated pre-tax profits to SKr637mn last year on a poor underwriting result and a fall in investment income.
The company’s overall underwriting loss deteriorated by SKrl36mn to SKrl91mn while..
Online Published Date:
08 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
664 - 08 June 2001
Company profile: Santam
Santam, South Africa’s leading general insurer, saw a 65% jump in gross premiums to R4.6bn in 2000 following its merger with local insurer Guardian National. The acquisition gave Santam a 25% share of the South African general insurance..
Online Published Date:
08 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
664 - 08 June 2001
Company profile: Bavarian Re Ireland
Bavarian Reinsurance Ireland, a subsidiary of Swiss Re, reported a sharp increase in pre-tax profit in 2000. The result was boosted by improved underwriting and investment performance.
The company, which will shortly change its name to the Swiss Re..
Online Published Date:
08 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
664 - 08 June 2001
Company profile: PartnerRe
Helped by lower catastrophe losses, PartnerRe saw a recovery in its operating result in 2000. The Bermudian reinsurer increased its operating earnings by 109% to US$192mn while pre-tax profits were up by $48mn to $99mn. Taking into..
Online Published Date:
08 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
664 - 08 June 2001
Lloyd’s global results 1998 Approaching the bottom
Lloyd’s figures are certain to be poor for the next few closed years of account as the market struggles to cope with the cyclical downturn within the wider global insurance industry. The 1997 year was the first since the reconstruction and..
Online Published Date:
08 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
664 - 08 June 2001
Iran: market grows by a nearly a third
Estimates released by the Iranian authorities suggest the insurance market expanded by 30% during the first 11 months of the last Iranian fiscal year, which ran from March 2000 to March 2001.
Total direct premiums were down to IR3,339bn..
Online Published Date:
08 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
664 - 08 June 2001
World markets: Chile and Iran Chile: premiums and earnings advance in first quarter
First-quarter 2001 results from the Chilean insurance sector show good progress in both premium revenue and profitability for local insurers, particularly in the non-life sector.
Life insurers increased premium revenue by 5.4% to U$423mn,..
Online Published Date:
08 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
664 - 08 June 2001
P&l interview Alistair Groom: setting the Standard
The 150-year-old marine liability market with its mutual associations or ‘clubs’ has long been portrayed as one of those arcane corners of the insurance industry that, like the Lloyd’s market, needs to be restructured and made more..
Online Published Date:
08 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
664 - 08 June 2001
Accident is a wake-up call for Israeli insurers
Insurers of Israeli risks have been given a wake-up call by the recent accident at a Tel-Aviv wedding, according to Risk Management Solutions earthquake expert Gordon Woo. Last week the floor of the Versailles Banqueting Hall in Talpyot, Jerusalem..
Online Published Date:
08 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
664 - 08 June 2001
German bancassurers decide their strategy
Two events are currently occupying the minds of most German insurance executives, and they are closely related: the takeover of Dresdner Bank by Allianz and the final passage through parliament of the bill changing Germany’s pension system...
Online Published Date:
08 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
664 - 08 June 2001
New Zealand war vets to sue UK government
A group of New Zealand wartime veterans exposed to radiation during British nuclear tests in the 1950s want to sue the UK government. Papers and a submission seeking compensation from the British government for exposing servicemen to radiation..
Online Published Date:
08 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
664 - 08 June 2001
PPM struggles to recruit new members
Sweden’s innovative PPM pension scheme – which gives individuals control over how their complementary compulsory contributions are invested – is suffering from a lack of uptake.
Some of the fund managers who signed up to take part..
Online Published Date:
08 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
664 - 08 June 2001
Swiss Re increases investment in India
Though it has yet to decide on whether to set up a subsidiary company in India, Swiss Re is slowly increasing the level of its investments in the country.
The world’s second-largest reinsurer is in the process of acquiring a 1% equity stake in..
Online Published Date:
08 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
664 - 08 June 2001
Domestic savings down in Sweden
Net inflow into Sweden’s unit-linked life insurance funds totalled SwKr7.1bn (€778mn) during the first quarter of 2001, according to Statistika Centralbyran, the national statistical bureau.
This compares with a net inflow of SwKr7bn..
Online Published Date:
08 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
664 - 08 June 2001
Auditors protected by obscure law
Arthur Andersen, auditor for failed Australian insurance company HIH, is to be protected from massive damages payouts by a little-known law on the New South Wales statute books.
Government ministers and other creditors had hoped to pursue Arthur..
Online Published Date:
08 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
664 - 08 June 2001
Early retirement reason for low trade in SPP surplus pension funds
Trading in the surplus pension funds distributed by Alecta (formerly SPP) as bonuses to its client companies has been lower than expected.
When trading started in November last year, Carnegie Pension Consulting – one of the larger firms..
Online Published Date:
08 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
664 - 08 June 2001
Indian state insurers suffer in open market
Things are not going too well for India’s four state-run general insurance companies in the new liberalised environment.
The companies have recorded an average growth of 4% in premium income in 2000–01, which is the worst performance in..
Online Published Date:
08 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
664 - 08 June 2001
Norwegians oppose Storebrand merger
Den norske Bank (DnB), backed by Norway’s finance minister Karl Eirik Schjott-Pedersen, is leading local opposition to Sampo’s bid for Storebrand. The Finnish company’s agreed bid for Storebrand – valuing the Norwegian..
Online Published Date:
08 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
664 - 08 June 2001
Airmic conference report: risk managers told to go and prepare for change
An absence of regulatory co-ordination and general market ignorance are the main factors impeding the convergence of the banking and insurance sectors. Delegates at the recent UK Association of Insurers & Risk Managers conference in Birmingham..
Online Published Date:
08 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
664 - 08 June 2001
Swedish life insurers badly hit by fall in stock market prices
Figures from the Swedish financial markets regulator Finansinspektionen show that three companies – Folksam Liv, KPA, and Spar Liv – have seen their consolidation ratio (assets to projected obligations) fall below 100% in the first..
Online Published Date:
08 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
664 - 08 June 2001
US government agency predicts average hurricane season
Experts from the US government’s National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have predicted normal levels of activity for the 2001 Atlantic hurricane season, which begins on 1 June.
But the centre warned that Atlantic and Gulf..
Online Published Date:
08 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
664 - 08 June 2001
Captives – pros and cons
It is estimated that more than 75% of Fortune 500 companies now operate their own captive insurance subsidiaries in addition to numerous smaller companies and enterprises that have followed the same route. Despite the soft insurance market and..
Online Published Date:
08 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
664 - 08 June 2001
Bold bid to end spirals
UK-based accounting and consulting firm Grant Thornton has launched a bold bid to bring about the end to one of the most costly and inefficient problems that besets the international reinsurance industry: the 1980s spiral.
The Grant Thornton..
Online Published Date:
08 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
664 - 08 June 2001
Irish government threatens to cap insurance premiums
Ireland’s insurers could be facing the prospect of controls on premium increases. The veiled threat was made by Ireland’s deputy prime minister in a speech to the recent annual lunch of the Irish Insurance Federation (IIF).
Mary Harney,..
Online Published Date:
08 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
664 - 08 June 2001
Company profile: CNA Financial
CNA Financial saw a spectacular turnaround in its pre-tax profits last year. The company recovered from a US$11mn loss in 1999 to produce a profit of $1.8bn in 2000.
This massive improvement in the company’s performance was directly due to two..
Online Published Date:
22 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
665 - 22 June 2001
CCR
French state-owned reinsurer Caisse Centrale de Réassurance (CCR) reported a significant improvement in its results for 2000. This was largely due to a reduction in the number of natural catastrophe losses last year. The company produced a..
Online Published Date:
22 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
665 - 22 June 2001
Extending the boundaries
Berry Palmer & Lyle (BPL), the London-based independent specialist broker, keeps a deceptively low profile. Not only has the company been at the cutting edge of almost every development in the political risk and trade credit insurance market..
Online Published Date:
22 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
665 - 22 June 2001
New AGF president
The newly appointed president of AGF, Jean-Philippe Thierry, promised continuity at the company’s annual general meeting earlier this month. He endorsed the target of a 15% return on capital for 2002 set by predecessor Antoine..
Online Published Date:
22 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
665 - 22 June 2001
Scor finally disposes of Euler to AGF
Scor has sold its remaining 5.07% stake in credit insurer Euler to Allianz subsidiary AGF. Scor has meant to dispose of its interests in Euler for some time, since it is the major shareholder in Coface, one of the world’s biggest credit..
Online Published Date:
22 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
665 - 22 June 2001
Allianz promises €1bn in Dresdner synergies
German insurer Allianz has estimated the synergies of its merger with Dresdner Bank at €1bn (US$851.6mn) a year from 2006. What impressed analysts was that this figure was obtained by adding estimates made by operating units rather than..
Online Published Date:
22 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
665 - 22 June 2001
Sampo moves a little closer to Storebrand
Sampo has achieved its first, small, victory in its bid to buy Norwegian insurer Storebrand. Tobacco heir Johan Andresen, who holds 2.6% of Storebrand, has decided to accept the Finnish offer.
The significance is that in the past Mr Andresen has..
Online Published Date:
22 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
665 - 22 June 2001
Skandia set on bringing If to stock market
Skandia has indicated it still intends to list If, its non-life joint venture (owned together with Storebrand), before the end of June. Analysts were starting to wonder as no prospectus has so far been issued for the joint venture.
Skandia said..
Online Published Date:
22 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
665 - 22 June 2001
French insurers under fire as Axa is charged
Axa’s founder and supervisory board chairman Claude Bébéar and his successor as head of the company, Henri de Castries, have been charged with money laundering by the French authorities.
The charge comes at a time when the French..
Online Published Date:
22 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
665 - 22 June 2001
Pohjola acquires small bank
Finnish insurance group Pohjola is buying a small local investment bank, Conventum, with a view to building up an investment management operation. This effectively precludes any further co-operation with the OKO Bank group.
Payment is to be in the..
Online Published Date:
22 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
665 - 22 June 2001
Hannover Re
Hannover Re intends to increase its profits by 10% this year, according to president Wilhelm Zeller at the company’s recent annual meeting. It is a target the company has maintained since 1996. This would take Hannover Re’s net profits..
Online Published Date:
22 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
665 - 22 June 2001
HIH sold profitable New Zealand insurance subsidiary
Failed Australian insurance giant HIH sold its profitable New Zealand subsidiary shortly before HIH collapsed with A$3bn (US$1.6bn) in liabilities. The New Zealand company, HIH(NZ), which is operating profitably, now avoids any association with the..
Online Published Date:
22 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
665 - 22 June 2001
PIAM set on new motor premium structure
The General Insurance Association of Malaysia (Persatuan Insuran Am Malaysia or PIAM) has initiated a series of measures to improve the underwriting of motor insurance business in the country. It has formulated a set of recommendations for..
Online Published Date:
22 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
665 - 22 June 2001
ING sells Fortis shares to pay for acquistion
Dutch bancassureur ING has sold some 14.7mn shares in Belgian/Dutch company Fortis to help pay for its purchase of Mexican insurer Seguros Comercial América (SCA). The Fortis shares were sold at €27.75 (US$23.64) apiece, which generated..
Online Published Date:
22 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
665 - 22 June 2001
Capital market solutions more transparent
The annual volume of catastrophe risk securitisations should reach US$10bn by 2010 from only $1bn at present, Swiss Re predicts in its latest sigma
report*. It also sees vast potential for securitising other types of cover, such as motor insurance,..
Online Published Date:
22 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
665 - 22 June 2001
Avoiding the downward spiral
Capital providers are making increasing demands of the London market insurers in which they invest. Rob Johnston, managing director of Copenhagen Re (UK), argues that this development not only demands a strong, frank approach to the challenges..
Online Published Date:
22 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
665 - 22 June 2001
World loss log 29 May–11 June 2001
Late reports
26.5, earthquake, fatalities
China: two people were killed and more than 600 injured in an earthquake in southwestern China. The quake, measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale, struck a mountainous region on the border of Yunnan and Sichuan..
Online Published Date:
22 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
665 - 22 June 2001
Company profile: Milli Re
Turkish reinsurance market leader Milli Reasürans recorded a net profit of TL1,115bn (US$1.7mn) in 2000, up 34% from the previous year as an improved underwriting performance offset a reduction in investment income.
According to Milli..
Online Published Date:
22 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
665 - 22 June 2001
Market responds to new laws
The growth of Indonesia’s non-life insurance market slowed down dramatically in 1999. Market gross premiums (direct premiums plus reinsurance premiums inwards from abroad) fell by 4% to Rp6,398bn (US$511mn). This compared with a 64% growth of..
Online Published Date:
22 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
665 - 22 June 2001
Storms hit Mutuelles du Mans 2000 results
Mutuelles du Mans (MMA) saw its turnover rise to Fr22.2bn (US$2.9bn) last year from Fr20.6bn in 1999. But net profits dropped to Fr828mn from Fr1.2bn a year earlier.
The drop in profits was due to an exceptional 1999 figure, inflated by the sale of..
Online Published Date:
22 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
665 - 22 June 2001
Trinidad to change motor insurance law
Insurers in Trinidad and Tobago are up in arms over a government proposal for a system of “no-fault” insurance as an alternative to the third-party risks insurance that has been in existence for decades.
The Law Reform Commission has..
Online Published Date:
22 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
665 - 22 June 2001
EU aviation ‘near miss’ bill passes first reading in parliament
European Commission (EC) proposals for mandatory EU-wide rules for the reporting of aviation ‘near misses’ – and the sharing of such information among EU states – cleared their first reading in the European Parliament on 14..
Online Published Date:
22 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
665 - 22 June 2001
Argentinian insurers brace themselves for move away from cash
Except for commercial transactions, bank cheques are not well regarded in Argentina, according to a story last week in local business publication Clarin
. Most transactions – from paying at the supermarket to buying a car or a house –..
Online Published Date:
22 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
665 - 22 June 2001
ADB advises on insurer solvency rules
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has advised the Filipino government to amend the Insurance Code in order to ease provisions relating to investments by insurance companies and to rationalise solvency margins.
The ADB said these measures, if taken,..
Online Published Date:
22 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
665 - 22 June 2001
Caribbean insurers to work with regional states against OECD
Caribbean insurers say they are fully prepared to work with regional governments to try and repel the attempt by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) to undermine the low tax regime that has attracted..
Online Published Date:
22 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
665 - 22 June 2001
Maritime safety rules delayed
Disagreements about liability are likely to delay new EU legislation covering maritime safety and pollution compensation.
The European Parliament wants tanker owners to contribute to a compensation fund proposed by the European Commission (EC). But..
Online Published Date:
22 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
665 - 22 June 2001
State body offers relief for motor insurers in India
The Comptroller & Auditor General of India (CAG) has greatly encouraged the country’s general insurance industry by saying motor insurance premium rates need to be reviewed to cope with the huge underwriting losses. CAG is a statutory..
Online Published Date:
22 June 2001
Appeared in issue:
665 - 22 June 2001