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Articles for November 2002
Middle East
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08 November 2002
Arig cancels rights issue
The Arab Insurance Group has cancelled its US$100mn rights issue due to a change of heart on the part of two of its major shareholders. One of the shareholders is reported to..
Europe
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08 November 2002
Willis hits target
Willis, the London based insurance broking group, has reported third quarter 2002 net profits of US$31mn or 19 cents a share on the back of increased commission income. The result compares with a..
North America/Bermuda
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08 November 2002
Chubb takes asbestos charge
Chubb Corporation reported a third quarter 2002 net loss of US$242.1mn as it took a $625mn charge to boost its asbestos reserves. The result followed the completion of an internal review of..
Company profile: Hannover Re Group Africa
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08 November 2002
Hannover Re Group Africa, one of the leading reinsurers in the South African market, saw its pretax profits rise by 116% to R106mn (US$9mn) in 2001. The company’s result was boosted by significant foreign currency..
Company profile: Singapore Re
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08 November 2002
Singapore Re’s pre-tax income fell by 25% to S$10mn (US$5.2mn) in 2001. The earnings decline reflected lower underwriting profits and the implementation of a new accounting standard, which resulted in a charge of S$2.5mn for..
Company profile: Korean Re
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08 November 2002
Korean Re posted the best result of its 39-year history in 2001. Pretax profit for the company’s fiscal year ending 31 March 2002 stood at Won97.9bn (US$74mn), representing an increase of 160% and reflecting increased..
Swiss Re UK
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08 November 2002
The terrorist attacks in the USA and several major property damage losses made 2001 Swiss Re UK’s worst ever year in terms of technical results, outgoing chief executive Martin Albers noted in the company’s annual..
Rises in fire and motor premium rates help overall market growth
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08 November 2002
The Fijian insurance market grew by 4% to F$123.2mn (US$53.6mn) in 2001, according to the Reserve Bank of Fiji (RBF), the country’s insurance supervisory body. Premium growth was strongest in the nonlife sector. The life..
Blondeau resigns
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08 November 2002
Scor chairman and chief executive, Jacques Blondeau, resigned days after the company issued yet another profit warning. The French reinsurer is now forecasting that it will show a loss of some €250mn for the full..
BCP relinquishes 21% stake in Eureko
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08 November 2002
Banco Comercial Portugues has decided to pull out of the pan-European insurance group, Eureko. BCP will take back control of its former insurance arm Seguros i Pensoes. In return BCP will relinquish its 20.8% stake..
OECD looks for terror insurance solution
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08 November 2002
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has set up a working group to look for ways of insuring mega-risks such as ‘hyper terrorism’. The working group includes representatives of countries such as the..
Asbestos and environmental liabilities
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08 November 2002
Size of funding gap presents serious challenge for industry
In a special report published last week, rating agency AM Best once again warned that US commercial insurers’ asbestos and environmental (A&E) loss reserves are approximately $60bn..
Bali attack increases demand for kidnap and ransom cover in NZ
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08 November 2002
The Bali terrorism attack, which included New Zealanders among its victims, has increased demand from NZ’s major firms, for insurance cover against war, terrorism and kidnapping of senior executives travelling abroad.
Many NZ firms do business..
Interview: Dirk Lohmann, chief executive, Converium
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08 November 2002
Dirk Lohmann, chief executive of Swiss reinsurer Converium (formerly Zurich Re), spoke to WIR
about the company’s third quarter results. Last week, Converium surprised the market by announcing that it posted $56.9mn to reserves as..
Reinsurers’ 3rd qtr results hit by investment losses and European flood damage
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08 November 2002
With 11 September entering the comparison, reinsurance companies’ results for the first nine months of 2002 are showing massive improvement. The greatest improvements have been seen at companies which were worst hit by the attack...
Asia
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08 November 2002
China to allow foreign currency policies
Insurers licensed in the Chinese market will now be allowed to issue foreign currency denominated policies for property, life and reinsurance business. However, the option will not be available to..
15–28 October 2002
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08 November 2002
Late reports
13.10, electrical failure, listing
Brazil: Petrobras platform P-34, which is located in Barracuda Field in the Campos Basin, listed 48 degrees due to a failure of its electrical systems. Petrobras said a fault in the..
World insurance stock prices
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08 November 2002
Company/group
Currency
31/12/01
17/10/02
31/10/02
Change from 17/10/02 %
Capitalisation US$ mn
* as at close 15 October
© World Insurance Report
..
Company profile: Ghana Re
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08 November 2002
The Ghanaian insurance market in 2001 continued to be characterised by intense competition and uneconomic pricing, according to Ghana Re’s annual report.
At the same time long delays in premium debt settlement resulted in poor cash..
Wordings finalised as major corporations struggle to obtain cover
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08 November 2002
It now seems certain that the terrorism insurance bill will finally be voted through when Congress returns after the mid term elections early next month. This is largely the result of a Republican concession to..
Bolivia’s private pensions system burdened by non-payment
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08 November 2002
Bolivia’s private pension industry is now over five years old, but a recent report by the Superintendency for Pensions, Securities and Insurance (SPVS in its Spanish acronym) reveals that no less than 1,945 employers of..
Argentinean motor insurers worried about inflated court awards
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08 November 2002
The economic crisis and lack of security in Argentina have caused motor insurance claims to spiral. Car thefts have gone up by about 50% since 2001. Theft insurance costs have increased by 25%, epecially in..
New definition of ‘rural’ to boost Indian life insurers’ prospects
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08 November 2002
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority’s (IRDA) latest notification delineating what constitutes rural business for life insurance companies is expected to provide a substantial boost for the latter’s operations in rural areas.
Speaking to the press,..
Swiss cuts pension saving rates
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08 November 2002
Switzerland’s Federal Council has trimmed the legally allowed minimum return on complementary pension savings from 4% to 3.25%. The council noted that it was responding to the yields on Swiss Confederation bonds, currently around 2.70%..
Caribbean: motor insurance crisis • market consolidation
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08 November 2002
Because of a high accident rate, Caribbean taxi drivers are finding it increasingly difficult to obtain affordable motor vehicle insurance.
They face the dilemma of having to comply with an insurance system that is mandatory throughout..
Pool to provide temporary solution to French medical liability crisis
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08 November 2002
Following the report on the medical third party liability insurance crisis in France (WIR
699/1), local insurers have proposed a pool as a temporary measure to cover hospitals and doctors while a solution is found..
Asia
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22 November 2002
No safe havens
Rating agency Standard & Poor’s said that failures and withdrawals will remain a feature of the Asia-Pacific insurance sector in 2003. Ian Thompson, credit analyst and head of S&P’s Asia-Pacific Ratings Group speaking..
Europe
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22 November 2002
Lloyd’s record ‘abysmal’
A senior figure within the Lloyd’s market has criticised syndicates for concentrating too much on market share in the past and described the market’s financial track record as ‘abysmal’. In an interview with..
North America/Bermuda
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22 November 2002
Terrorist backstop in doubt
Contrary to earlier expectations, it now seems unlikely that legislation to enable federal financial support for the insurance industry in the event of another terrorist attack on the scale of 11 Septembner..
World insurance stock prices
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22 November 2002
Company/group
Currency
31/12/01
31/10/02
14/11/02
Change from 31/10/02 %
Capitalisation US$ mn
© World Insurance Report
AIG
US$
79.40
62.55
65.75
5.1..
Insurance Australia Group
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22 November 2002
Insurance Australia Group (formerly known as NRMA) is set to consolidate its leading position in the Australian and New Zealand general insurance markets with its planned acquisition of Aviva’s Australasian nonlife operations.
The acquisition, which is..
Market grows by 19% as insurer privatisation legislation is finalised
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22 November 2002
Slovenia’s insurance market grew by 19% to SlT230bn (US$937mn) in 2001, its highest growth rate since 1995, according to statistics published by the Slovenian Insurance Association.
Gross premiums for the nonlife market grew by 16% to..
Insurers unsure about tax implications of Argentine aviation decree
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22 November 2002
In the late 1940s the Argentine government established a monopoly on reinsurance through an agency that later became the State-owned “Instituto Nacional de Reaseguros (INdeR).” Purchasing policies protecting “any persons, property or any other insurable..
The International Finance Corporation takes stake in Vietnamese insurance company
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22 November 2002
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector development arm of the World Bank Group, announced that it will take a 15% stake in Allianz General Insurance (Vietnam) Co. Ltd.
Allianz General provides nonlife insurance to..
Old Mutual chief praises prospects of Indian insurance market
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22 November 2002
The Indian insurance industry is on the threshold of a big boom according to Old Mutual chief executive, Jim Sutcliffe. This is primarily because the Indian investor community will graduate from mutual funds to the..
Local companies rise to demand for real estate cover in Russia
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22 November 2002
Until recently, risks taken on the Russian real-estate market have gone largely uninsured. Now the situation is changing radically and recent months have seen a growth in the number of local insurance companies offering products..
Insurers see compulsory motor class as key to gaining market share
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22 November 2002
The abolition of price controls from the beginning of 2003 is likely to make the Hungarian compulsory third party motor liability (ctpml) business even more competitive and provide few opportunities for making an underwriting profit.
At..
Swiss life and Scor: new leader, new vision?
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22 November 2002
Swiss Life’s new managing directors Rolf Dorig who replaces Roland Chlapowski.
Mr Chlapowski lasted barely eight months. The poor performance of the shares of Rentenanstalt/Swiss Life – which was as much the fault of Mr Chlapowski’s..
Allianz • Generali
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22 November 2002
The Allianz group has reported a loss of €2.5bn (US$2.5bn) for the third quarter, which brought the total net loss for the nine months to September to €924mn. However, analysts were much more concerned about..
29 October–11 November 2002
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22 November 2002
Property and business interruption
29.10, office block, fatalities
Vietnam: at least 61 people died after a huge fire at an office block heavily populated by foreign companies in Vietnam’s southern hub of Ho Chi Minh City. The..
Company profile: Arab Re
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22 November 2002
Arab Re recorded positive premium growth for the first time since 1995, according to the company’s 2001 annual report. Established in Beirut, Lebanon, in March 1972, Arab Re writes all types of reinsurance as well..
Company profile: The Underwriter
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22 November 2002
UK liability insurer The Underwriter (TU) reported a pre-tax loss of £12mn (US$18mn) for 2001, its second full year of operation.
This compared with a profit of £2mn for the previous year. The negative result stemmed..
Chile: tough nine months for life insurers hit by investment losses
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22 November 2002
Chilean insurers’ results for the first nine months of 2002, published in early November, show a deterioration in the performance of companies in both the life and nonlife sectors.
The 34 life insurance companies came off..
NZ Earthquake fund suffers equity losses
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22 November 2002
The New Zealand Earthquake Commission, which provides insurance for earthquake and natural disaster damage, has lost NZ$104 mn (US$50.2mn) investing in world markets between November last year and June this year. The Commission was given..
Poland’s PZU is looking to move into Latvia and the Ukraine
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22 November 2002
Although Poland is the largest insurance market in Eastern and Central Europe (excluding the former Soviet Union), it seems to be too small a space for the country’s largest insurer, PZU.
Press reports indicate that the..
Life insurers and the new anti-money laundering measures
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22 November 2002
On 17 October, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) of the US Department of the Treasury imposed a suspicious activity reporting requirement upon life insurance companies and others engaged in the issuing, underwriting or reinsuring..
Restructuring, reorientation and commitment to the London market
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22 November 2002
There has been a great deal of speculation about the future of the London market insurer and reinsurer, Württ UK. So much so, that two weeks ago the company’s managing director, Stephen Redmond, issued a..
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