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Company profile: Le Mans Ré
Le Mans Ré was formed in 1999 as a vehicle to boost the European presence of 49% owner XL Capital and more specifically its subsidiary XL Mid Ocean Re.
The initial business of the new company came from French insurer Mutuelles du Mans, which..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
650 - 10 November 2000
Trenwick
In many ways, last year was a memorable one for Trenwick. The group increased its gross premium income by 56% to US$506mn. Although this expansion in business volume was in no small part due to the acquisition of the Chartwell Re Corporation..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
650 - 10 November 2000
Singapore
Although the Singapore economy staged an impressive recovery in 1999, the domestic non-life insurance market proved much less resilient. The market, which saw its gross premium income reduced by 8% at the height of the Asian financial crisis in..
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10 November 2000
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650 - 10 November 2000
Small states find debt cover
T
he Commonwealth Disaster Management Agency (CDMA) and Lloyd’s Liberty Syndicates have devised an innovative insurance programme to assist small states in the wake of a natural disaster.
WIR talks to CDMA director Robbie Lyle.
When small..
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10 November 2000
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650 - 10 November 2000
AB-Aegon fined
Second-ranked Hungarian composite insurer AB-Aegon General Insurance has been fined Ft10mn (US$32,000) by the Hungarian Financial Supervisory Authority – one of the largest fines ever levied.
The company was found to be unable to substantiate..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
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650 - 10 November 2000
Skandia refocuses in China
Swedish insurer Skandia has changed its strategy in China. The company is now looking for a partner for a joint venture either in Shanghai or Beijing.
Initially, it had been planning to set up a wholly-owned subsidiary. But the company discovered..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
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650 - 10 November 2000
Zurich joint venture pays off
Following its bancassurance joint venture with Zurich Financial Services last March, Brazil’s Banco Mercantil Finasa has greatly increased its share of the domestic market. It has jumped from 23rd to 16th place in the country’s..
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10 November 2000
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650 - 10 November 2000
Allianz makes US debut
Allianz AG’s stockmarket debut in the US was accompanied by much fanfare but not much substance about its objectives in the world’s largest insurance market. There was the feeling that Allianz needed a scoop to woo the markets that blame..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
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650 - 10 November 2000
DB sells stake
Deutsche Bank is close to selling its 27% stake in Nürnberger Versicherung. Nürnberger recently fought off an attempt by Versicherungskammer Bayern to obtain a substantial stake in the company, with the aim of acquiring majority..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
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650 - 10 November 2000
Reinsurance mergers: Third-quarter activity
Insurance industry mergers and acquisitions continue apace. M&A activity for the third quarter of 2000 made it the busiest period so far this year; 159 deals were announced – 64 in September alone.
Worldwide there were 439..
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10 November 2000
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650 - 10 November 2000
If prepares for IPO
Troubled Scandinavian p/c insurer If has announced management and board changes in preparation for its impending float.
Johan Fredrik Odfjell and Jon Giverholt have joined the board of the holding operating companies replacing Skandia’s chief..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
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650 - 10 November 2000
Allianz takes Indian stake
Allianz of Germany has picked up a 26% stake in Bajaj Auto General Insurance. Bajaj Auto has already applied on its own for a licence to operate in the non-life sector. The move follows the parting of ways a few weeks ago between Allianz and its..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
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650 - 10 November 2000
Experts differ over UK storm losses
Floods and wind that have lashed the UK over the last two weeks are going to prove expensive for insurers.
But despite the speculation of some that global warming is to blame, most experts believe the severe weather is nothing out of the usual..
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10 November 2000
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650 - 10 November 2000
Secret deal revealed
Allianz and Munich Re have a co-operation agreement that is very difficult to end, according to documents released by Allianz in the course of its US listing. Confidential cooperative agreements among companies are quite common in Germany but have..
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10 November 2000
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650 - 10 November 2000
World loss log 16–28 October
Late reports
12.10, airline crash, award
US: jury awarded US$6.5mn to a music student who claimed she remained emotionally shattered more than a year after surviving an American Airlines crash at Little Rock airport. 11 people, including the pilot,..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
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650 - 10 November 2000
World insurance stock prices
Company/group
Currency
1999 year end
19/10/00
02/11/00
% change from 19/10/00
Capitalisation US$mn
1. CGU
Ace
US$
16.69
37.81
40.44
6.9
8975
AIG
US$
72.09
94.63
96.25
1.7
222707
Allianz
€..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
650 - 10 November 2000
Company profile: Polish Re
As in most countries of eastern Europe, it is the large reinsurers from western Europe that dominate the reinsurance market in Poland. However, with liberalisation of the regulatory environment, traditional market shares are also being broken..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
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650 - 10 November 2000
Correction: Sorema
Some of the figures in the table that accompanied the company profile of Société de Réassurance des Assurances Mutuelles Agricoles (Sorema) (WIR 646/16)
were incorrect. This was due to a mix-up between the company’s..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
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650 - 10 November 2000
Ceska Pojistovna share down
The end of the third-party compulsory motor insurance regime at the beginning of this year in the Czech Republic impacted heavily on dominant local insurer Ceska Pojistovna. CP lost a major share of the business to the other eight insurers that now..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
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650 - 10 November 2000
Hungarian reforms
Hungarian insurers’ trade association MABISZ and the Financial Supervisory Authority are considering changing the regulations regarding the payment of insurance commissions to multiple insurance agents. The intention is to delay the payment of..
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10 November 2000
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650 - 10 November 2000
Nigeria closes firms
The Nigerian authorities have forced 16 insurers into liquidation as the government begins to take real steps towards liberalising the country’s insurance sector. But the closures have not gone far enough for the head of the country’s..
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10 November 2000
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Co-operatives to be permitted in India
India’s finance minister Balasaheb Vikhe Patil has announced that the government is set to bring in major amendments to the country’s insurance act to facilitate the entry of co-operatives into the insurance sector.
Some of the major..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
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650 - 10 November 2000
ACC mulls rate hike
Claims for medical misadventure and mistakes have cost New Zealand’s recently renationalised Accident Rehabilitation Insurance Corporation (ACC) nearly NZ$67mn (US$33mn) in the past six years.
Ongoing claims – those requiring long-term..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
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650 - 10 November 2000
Opic to help Ethiopia
A new bilateral trade agreement between Ethiopia and the US will make the struggling African state more attractive to US investors. The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (Opic), a US semi-government body providing investment products to..
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10 November 2000
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650 - 10 November 2000
Brazil prepares new motor rules
Brazil’s Private Insurance Superintendency (Susep) is shortly to publish the new rules governing motor insurance. Among other issues, new insured values will be based on a so-called ‘reference schedule’.
Criticising the former..
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10 November 2000
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650 - 10 November 2000
EC an insurance disaster
Insurance directives issued by the European Commission (EC) have actually caused a divergence in insurance regulation across the EU rather than the intended convergence, according to a leading academic. And the amount and number of regulations have..
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10 November 2000
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650 - 10 November 2000
Australian marine insurance reform
Australia has the opportunity to take an international lead – and enhance its competitiveness in the global market – by strategic reform of its marine insurance laws, according to the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) president,..
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10 November 2000
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EU issues ultimatum to Italy
The European Commission has given the Italian government three weeks to end its price freeze on motor insurance premiums. If Rome fails to comply with the Commission’s 25 October ultimatum, the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg will be..
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10 November 2000
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650 - 10 November 2000
Chilean companies’ losses up
Chile’s insurance supervisor has released details of the third-quarter 2000 results for the country’s 23 non-life companies. They show that the improvement in premium revenue in the earlier part of the year has been maintained.
Premiums..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
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650 - 10 November 2000
Caribbean to open climate centre
Governments in the Caribbean have decided to establish a permanent Climate Change Centre to monitor sea level changes in the future. The move has been prompted by predictions that the island nations are likely to be among the countries most at risk..
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10 November 2000
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Eureko outraged over PZU setback
Pan-European insurance alliance Eureko has expressed its outrage at the further delay to the proposed float of former state insurance monopoly PZU. The company, which has been at loggerheads with the government almost from the time it first took an..
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10 November 2000
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650 - 10 November 2000
New solvency rules
The European Commission is proposing to raise the minimum solvency margin requirements for both life and non-life insurers. If the proposals are approved by the European Parliament and EU national governments, insurance companies will have to..
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10 November 2000
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650 - 10 November 2000
Reinsurers talk tough
Reinsurers are taking a tougher line after their annual meeting in Baden-Baden. The recently renamed GE Frankona, a part of General Electric’s GE Capital, is seeking not to renew unprofitable business. The new management under Bob Dellinger is..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
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650 - 10 November 2000
Nelson elected
While Florida will be remembered as the state that narrowly decided the presidential election, insurers had an interest in another contest in the Sunshine State.
Local insurance commissioner Bill Nelson has been elected to the US Senate as a..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
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650 - 10 November 2000
Unlocking the future
Gary Benanav,
vice-chairman of New York Life Insurance Company and chairman and chief executive of New York Life International argues that the US financial services industry has much to gain from China’s accession to the World Trade..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
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650 - 10 November 2000