Tougher times ahead for global reinsurance sector

In response to shrinking premium volume, share repurchases have been the weapon of choice as companies strive to maintain returns to shareholders. During the first quarter most companies were continuing to buy back shares, some like Platinum and RenaissanceRe quite aggressively. However, Aspen, Axis and PartnerRe reduced repurchases to negligible or zero amounts

First quarter results indicate that 2008 is going to be a much harder year than 2007 for reinsurers as they face more challenging conditions on both sides of their balance sheet. They included more bad news from Swiss Re but also another outstanding investment performance by Odyssey Re.