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North America
Montpelier IPO
Montpelier Holdings, the parent company of Montpelier Re, one of the Bermudian start ups formed to take advantage of the hard reinsurance market after 11 September, will offer 9.5mn shares at $20 to $22 each in a public offering. The..
Online Published Date:
27 September 2002
Appeared in issue:
697 - 27 September 2002
Africa
Alexander Forbes gives 30% stake to black group
The international insurance intermediary, fund manager and benefits consultant, Alexander Forbes will sell a 30% stake in its South African listed business to a black empowerment company, Millennium..
Online Published Date:
27 September 2002
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697 - 27 September 2002
Europe
Moody’s strips Munich Re
In a move of great symbolic significance to the insurance industry, rating agency Moody’s downgraded the insurance financial strength rating of the world’s biggest reinsurer, Munich Re from its top rating..
Online Published Date:
27 September 2002
Appeared in issue:
697 - 27 September 2002
World insurance stock prices
Company/group
Currency
31/12/01
5/9/02
19/9/02
Change from 5/9/02 %
Capitalisation US$ mn
© World Insurance Report
Ace
US$
40.15
30.77
31.60
2.7
8,292
AIG
US$
79.40
58.32
57.50
(1.4)..
Online Published Date:
27 September 2002
Appeared in issue:
697 - 27 September 2002
Company profile: New Re
Geneva-based reinsurer Nouvelle Compagnie de Réassurances (New Re), which is majority-owned by Munich Re, posted a pre-tax loss of SF51mn (US$30mn) last year as a negative life result and unrealised capital losses offset an improved non-life..
Online Published Date:
27 September 2002
Appeared in issue:
697 - 27 September 2002
Company profile: Alea Group
Multi-line reinsurer/insurer Alea Group reported a pre-tax loss of US$28mn in 2001, its fourth year of operation. This compared with a deficit of $26mn for the previous year. Alea’s annual report said the company’s result was worse than..
Online Published Date:
27 September 2002
Appeared in issue:
697 - 27 September 2002
Venezuela
Buoyant market constrained by political and economic problems
The Venezuelan insurance market grew by 31% to Bs1,981bn (US$2.6bn) in 2001, according to a report published by the country’s insurance regulator, the Superintendencia de..
Online Published Date:
27 September 2002
Appeared in issue:
697 - 27 September 2002
France
AZF explosion and 11 September losses blamed for fall in earnings
The French insurance market had a difficult year in 2001. Earnings declined for both the life and nonlife sectors and the growth in premium income slowed down compared with 2000...
Online Published Date:
27 September 2002
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697 - 27 September 2002
Reinsurance costs increase by 800% in Argentina
Buying reinsurance in Argentina has become prohibitively expensive. The two main causes are the peso devaluation (almost all treaty and facultative business is placed abroad) and the hardening of the international market.
The problem affects mostly..
Online Published Date:
27 September 2002
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697 - 27 September 2002
Japanese market braced for the introduction of bancassurance
There are high hopes in Japan that bancassurance will take off from October 1 when commercial banks will be allowed to sell life-insurance products over the counter.
Banks and life insurers are signing up distribution deals and 3,000 bank branches..
Online Published Date:
27 September 2002
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697 - 27 September 2002
R&SA capital requirements: correction
A company profile of Royal & SunAlliance which appeared in the last issue of World Insurance Report mistakenly noted that RSA had announced “that it had secured the support of its biggest institutional shareholders for a £750mn..
Online Published Date:
27 September 2002
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697 - 27 September 2002
Swiss Life/Scor
Swiss Life has had to tighten its belt again. The beleaguered life insurer announced the loss of a further 700 jobs between now and 2004. This is in addition to the 800 job cuts the company announced in April of this year. The company is hoping to..
Online Published Date:
27 September 2002
Appeared in issue:
697 - 27 September 2002
Aegon
Dutch insurer Aegon is dismantling its capital structure, originally designed to protect the group from hostile takeovers, to boost its balance sheet. The group’s principal shareholder, the Aegon Association, which took control of the company..
Online Published Date:
27 September 2002
Appeared in issue:
697 - 27 September 2002
French flood losses
The recent floods, mainly in the Gard region of south-eastern France, could cost insurers some €450mn ($442mn), the French insurers’ association, Federation Francaise des Societes d’Assurances, has estimated. The FFSA are expecting..
Online Published Date:
27 September 2002
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697 - 27 September 2002
SAI/La Fondiaria merger reaches final stages
The merger of Societa Assicuratrice Industriale (SAI) and La Fondiaria Assicurazioni is finally being finalised following the approval of the shareholders of both companies. Approval is still needed from the country’s competition authorities,..
Online Published Date:
27 September 2002
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697 - 27 September 2002
Bernheim is once more president of Generali
The Frenchman Antoine Bernheim is once again president of Generali. In the three and a half years since Mr Bernheim was last at the head of the Italian insurer, the group has seen off two presidents. Equally, the post has become more ceremonial. In..
Online Published Date:
27 September 2002
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697 - 27 September 2002
IUMI conference: marine rates still too low
Even before 11 September, marine insurers were starting to pull out, slowly, from the six-year trough of rock-bottom pricing which led to a great deal of consolidation among Lloyd’s syndicates and companies and the disappearance of many..
Online Published Date:
27 September 2002
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697 - 27 September 2002
Czech insurance market
Premiums written by the 43 insurance companies active in the Czech Republic in 2001 reached CKr79.2bn ( 2,506mn), an increase of 14.3%, against a 11.5% growth in the previous year.
While non-life insurance maintained the same rate of growth (10.5%)..
Online Published Date:
27 September 2002
Appeared in issue:
697 - 27 September 2002
Czech floods
While most businesses are getting back to normal after the record-breaking August floods in the Czech Republic, Czech-based insurance companies are still working out what the future might hold for their industry. Insurers such as Kooperativa, and..
Online Published Date:
27 September 2002
Appeared in issue:
697 - 27 September 2002
Chinese insurers rush to capital markets
A new opportunity beckons for foreign investors in China as the country’s leading insurers rush to restructure themselves for a listing on the stock exchange. Once listed, shares of these companies will be available for purchase by foreign..
Online Published Date:
27 September 2002
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697 - 27 September 2002
Asia
Hanwha closes Korea Life deal
After a year of negotiations, the Korean government has finally accepted an offer of W823.6bn (US$868.3mn) for a 51% stake in Korea Life from a consortium of local and foreign investors led by Korean industrial group,..
Online Published Date:
27 September 2002
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697 - 27 September 2002
3–16 September 2002
Property and business interruption
3.9, explosion, fatalities
China: thirty-three miners were killed when a gas explosion tore through a coal mine in the central Chinese province of Hunan. Six miners were missing after the explosion which ripped..
Online Published Date:
27 September 2002
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697 - 27 September 2002
Company profile: Russian Re
Russian Re’s gross premium income jumped by 135% to R516mn (US$16.9mn) last year, considerably exceeding the premium growth of 61% for the Russian insurance market, according to the company’s annual report. Russian Re, which was founded..
Online Published Date:
27 September 2002
Appeared in issue:
697 - 27 September 2002
Company profile: Central Re
Central Re, Taiwan's only domestic reinsurer, became a fully privatised entity earlier this year when Taiwan’s government sold a 23.1% stake in the company to private investors. The sell off by Taiwan’s finance ministry reduced the..
Online Published Date:
27 September 2002
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697 - 27 September 2002
Bancassurance set to explode in Chile
In April this year, Chilean regulators authorised insurance companies to offer their customers credit cards and consumer loans in a bid to increase competition and reduce interest rates in the consumer lending market. Insurers see this as a positive..
Online Published Date:
27 September 2002
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697 - 27 September 2002
Malaysia tries to avert crisis in health insurance system
Malaysian insurers offering medical cover are in crisis because some of their accredited managed care organisations (MCOs) have defaulted on payments to clinics and hospitals for treatment rendered.
The Malaysian central bank, Bank Negara, which..
Online Published Date:
27 September 2002
Appeared in issue:
697 - 27 September 2002
PZU share of polish market drops below 50%
For the first time in its history, the market share of Poland’s leading life insurance company, PZU Zycie, has dropped below the 50% mark. The company is still the market leader but it is significant that it has dropped under the..
Online Published Date:
27 September 2002
Appeared in issue:
697 - 27 September 2002
AZF explosion shakes up industrial cover
On the first anniversary of the explosion of the AZF chemical plant in Toulouse on 21 September, the French insurers’ association, Federation Francaise des Societes d’Assurances (FFSA) noted that the accident had caused damages of some..
Online Published Date:
27 September 2002
Appeared in issue:
697 - 27 September 2002
Hungarian funeral insurer sees rapid growth
Hungary’s only funeral insurer, Agrupacion Funeuropa Biztosito Rt (AFB), established in 1999, is growing rapidly, albeit from a small base.
AFB’s gross premium income reached Ft75mn (US$301,700) in the first half of 2002, 44% up on the..
Online Published Date:
27 September 2002
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697 - 27 September 2002
CDB puts emphasis on risk management in Caribbean
The Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) is stepping up its disaster mitigation program in order to safeguard as many as possible of the public sector infrastructure projects it helps to fund throughout the region.
Public sector assets..
Online Published Date:
27 September 2002
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697 - 27 September 2002
EC moves to rationalise life insurance legislation
EU legislation on life insurance, somewhat behind schedule, is about to be tidied up.
Back in June 2000, the European Commission proposed that the “scattered” texts of successive life insurance directives should be brought together in a..
Online Published Date:
27 September 2002
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697 - 27 September 2002
The limits of insurability
It is clear that the 11 September terrorist attacks have led to a shift in conceptions of the sheer magnitude of a potential loss. The losses involved extraordinary cumulative consequences. According to the international insurance think tank, the..
Online Published Date:
27 September 2002
Appeared in issue:
697 - 27 September 2002