CHAUCER OFFERS 25P IN £ FOR REMAINING CAPACITY OF 1084

Lloyd’s insurer Chaucer has offered to buy the balance of £7.9m of capacity in syndicate 1084 that it does not already own. The offer, applying to capacity from 2006 on, is 25p cash for each £1 of capacity held for the 2005 year of account. The total cost to Chaucer if all individual owners of capacity accepted the offer would be £2m. Chaucer, which is currently in takeover talks with locally based Amlin, said that it had received the undertaking of a member’s agent representing 83% of the outstanding capacity to recommend that its clients accept the offer. Meanwhile, Chaucer said that it expected to reduce capacity on syndicate 1084 for 2006 to £350m from £400m this year.