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Company profile: Axa Global Risks (UK)
Axa Global Risks (UK) had a difficult year in 1999, partly as a result of exceptionally large losses on its property portfolio as well as the depressed market. Commenting in the company’s annual report, chief executive James Morgan noted that..
Online Published Date:
27 October 2000
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649 - 27 October 2000
Company profile: CNA Re
CNA Re is one of the few, perhaps the only, company honest enough to publicly admit it will increase its retrocession capacity for 2001. The move is bold but could prove very successful as rates in that market climb steadily. Speaking to WIR
a few..
Online Published Date:
27 October 2000
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649 - 27 October 2000
Arab market poised for growth
The reasons why the Arab insurance market is attractive to international reinsurers are not immediately apparent. For a start, it is conspicuously small compared with other emerging insurance markets. The Arab market’s premium income of..
Online Published Date:
27 October 2000
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649 - 27 October 2000
Irish insurance market 1999
Motor losses remain the preoccupation of Irish insurers. Figures just released by the Irish Insurance Federation (IIF) show motor accounted for more than two-thirds of the I£211mn total non-life underwriting loss in 1999. IIF president John..
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27 October 2000
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649 - 27 October 2000
Catastrophe reinsurance: Braced for the upturn
While the soft catastrophe reinsurance market has ended – or is at least ‘temporarily suspended’ – rates are in no hurry to climb. And the extent of increases depends on geography. So says reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter in..
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27 October 2000
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649 - 27 October 2000
PartnerRe appoints new chief
Bermudian reinsurer PartnerRe has announced the replacement for outgoing chief executive Herbert Haag, who retires at the beginning of December. His successor is Patrick Thiele, group development director for CGNU. Mr Thiele, who was also..
Online Published Date:
27 October 2000
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649 - 27 October 2000
Ace sets up in Gibraltar
London-based Ace subsidiary Ace Global Markets has formed a new subsidiary to write business in the UK colony of Gibraltar. The new company, Ace Gibraltar, will write a range of products aimed at both the local, but mainly the international, markets..
Online Published Date:
27 October 2000
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649 - 27 October 2000
New reinsurer aims for $1bn capital
Canadian financial services company Trilon is spending US$200mn to set up a new reinsurer in Bermuda. Imagine Re would be a so-called ‘second-generation’ finite reinsurer paying special attention to asset management, it said. The two..
Online Published Date:
27 October 2000
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649 - 27 October 2000
Political risk: Tough love
A
lthough the main aim of the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (Miga) is to facilitate economic development in the world’s poorest countries, it is no charitable institution.
WIR profiles the political risk insurance arm of the World..
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27 October 2000
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649 - 27 October 2000
Grant resigns over downgrade
The head of QBE’s European operations, Bob Grant, has resigned following a disagreement with Sydney-based chief executive Frank O’Halloran. QBE said in a statement that the two had clashed over the future management of the business.
But..
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27 October 2000
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649 - 27 October 2000
Skandia sales up
Money and pension manager Skandia sees great potential in the Japanese market. The company’s sales there have already risen 300% to SwKr400mn (US$40mn) in the first six months of this year.
However, the result is a drop in the ocean compared..
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27 October 2000
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649 - 27 October 2000
German industrial insurers begin to see turn in market
German industrial insurers are confident they will stop the five-year slide of prices and conditions in the 2000 renewals. They have made a good start in the motor fleet sector where the market has tightened noticeably, and are now tackling the..
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27 October 2000
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649 - 27 October 2000
Half-year US reinsurance results
The main message from the recent spate of reinsurers’ interim results was a blunt one for an industry desperately wanting good news: there is still some way to go before the market turns and embarks on the long road to recovery. But while it..
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27 October 2000
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649 - 27 October 2000
Gerling launches e-cover for oil cargo insurance
The Gerling group’s Lloyd’s subsidiary – Gerling at Lloyd’s – has launched an internet-based trading system for oil cargo insurance. Gerling at Lloyd’s chairman Felix Zaccar said that the new system, called..
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27 October 2000
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649 - 27 October 2000
Buyers must involve trade unions and employers
Swedish pension company SPP, which is planning to sell its life subsidiary SPP Liv and its fund subsidiary SPP Fonder, is imposing a number of conditions on potential buyers.
One of the main conditions is that the new proprietor or proprietors of..
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27 October 2000
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649 - 27 October 2000
Pru sets up in Guangzhou
UK life company Prudential has formed its third office in the Chinese city of Guangzhou, in the prosperous southern province of Guangdong.
Prudential’s partner in the venture will be the state-owned China International Trust & Investment..
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27 October 2000
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649 - 27 October 2000
Allianz acquires Nicholas-Applegate
German insurer Allianz is to pay up to US$2.1bn to acquire US asset manager Nicholas-Applegate. The acquisition will bring Allianz’s assets under management to $750bn, an increase of around $150bn since 30 June this year.
The move confirms..
Online Published Date:
27 October 2000
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649 - 27 October 2000
India grants licences
India’s Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority (IRDA) has finally thrown open the doors to the country’s insurance market. IRDA has granted licences to six new insurance companies: three life and three non-life. This formally..
Online Published Date:
27 October 2000
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649 - 27 October 2000
World Loss Log 3 October – 16 October
Late reports
1.10, fire, property damage
Taiwan: a fire broke out at a factory of Wus Printed Circuit inside the Kaohsiung Export Processing Zone, causing at least NT$50mn (US$1.5mn) in damages. The damage meant the plant had to shut down for 3..
Online Published Date:
27 October 2000
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649 - 27 October 2000
World Insurance Stock Prices
Company/group
Currency
1999 year end
05/10/00
19/10/00
% change from 05/10/00
Capitalisation US$mn
1. CGU
Ace
US$
16.69
37.00
37.81
2.2
8392
AIG
US$
72.09
96.00
94.63
(1.4)
..
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27 October 2000
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649 - 27 October 2000
Company profile: Muslim Insurance Company
Despite its name, Muslim Insurance Company is not an Islamic or takaful insurer. Listed on the Karachi stock exchange, the company is run along strictly conventional lines, but with enviable success.
A non-life insurer, Muslim Insurance is..
Online Published Date:
27 October 2000
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649 - 27 October 2000
Bimeh Markazi Iran
Established in 1971 by an act of parliament to oversee the development of local insurance, Bimeh Markazi Iran today functions as both the country’s insurance regulatory authority and official reinsurer. All insurers in Iran are obliged to cede..
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27 October 2000
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649 - 27 October 2000
Miga insures plant in Bosnia
The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (Miga), part of the World Bank group, provided a US$23.3m guarantee for a Coca-Cola plant in Bosnia. The five year guarantee which covers the plant against currency transfer restrictions, expropriation,..
Online Published Date:
27 October 2000
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649 - 27 October 2000
Gibraltar will comply with OECD
Gibraltar’s trade and industry minister has confirmed that the domicile will comply with the standards required by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD) to avoid being named as an uncooperative tax haven when the..
Online Published Date:
27 October 2000
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649 - 27 October 2000
Genetic testing to open more traps
WIR looks at the contrasting approaches towards genetic testing by insurers in the UK and Australia.
Insurance companies are to be allowed to use genetic tests when assessing life and health insurance applications in the UK following..
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27 October 2000
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649 - 27 October 2000
Vietnam set for growth
Final agreement on the Bilateral Trade Agreement between the US and Vietnam is set to give a huge boost to the Vietnamese economy. After a drying-up of foreign investment in the country in the wake of the Asian crisis, news of greater access to the..
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27 October 2000
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649 - 27 October 2000
Swedish plans ignore inflation
Many of the funds taking part in Sweden’s complementary premium pension plan (PPM) failed to take account of inflation and exchange rate risks, the head of Sweden’s National Debt Office, Thomas Franzen, told the newspaper Dagens..
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27 October 2000
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649 - 27 October 2000
Government breaks up GIC
India’s government has taken the first step towards spinning off the four subsidiaries of the state-run General Insurance Corporation. Last week it issued a notification raising the authorised share capital of each of the four subsidiary..
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27 October 2000
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649 - 27 October 2000
Gothaer Re launches electronic reinsurance market
One of the smaller German reinsurers, Gothaer Rück (Gothaer Re) has mustered all its courage and set up what it believes is the world’s first neutral reinsurance exchange on the internet.
The facility, called Reway, should be up and..
Online Published Date:
27 October 2000
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649 - 27 October 2000
Corporate slaughter
Ellen Fleming,
partner and Graeme Payne,
trainee solicitor at Field Fisher Waterhouse Solicitors in London warn that a new law on corporate homicide means that unprepared companies could be liable to huge payouts.
‘A new corporate homicide..
Online Published Date:
27 October 2000
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649 - 27 October 2000