mergers & acquisitions

Lloyd’s accredited and London headquartered insurance and reinsurance broker Alston Gayler (AG), which has a recognised ILW broking practice, is to be acquired by fellow broker Miller Insurance Services LLP, the London broker majority owned by Willis Towers Watson (WTW).

The investors who have called for the sale of Bermudian reinsurance firm RenaissanceRe have cited the companies “dominant and unique position in third-party capital management” as a key reason to pursue a sale, saying potential buyers would find that attractive.

According to a Wall Street Journal article, prolific Bermudian reinsurance firm and third-party capital manager RenaissanceRe is coming under pressure from an activist investor to put itself up for sale.

The insurance and reinsurance broker landscape is set to shrink further, as one of the top players Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. has agreed to acquire Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group plc for a cash consideration of $5.6 billion.

The market should expect more mergers and acquisitions (M&) activity surrounding ILS funds or entities as re/insurers look to harness the capital markets, while at the same time efforts to bring the capital markets further along the value-chain are seen as “intelligent”, according to Aon executives.

Private equity and alternative investment specialist Apollo Global Management, LLC is acquiring Bermudian insurance and reinsurance firm Aspen Insurance Holdings for $2.6 billion, providing another sign of the attraction asset managers have to insurance-linked returns and the resulting long-term capital.

Mergers & acquisitions between major insurance and reinsurance firms continue to drive consolidation and rating agency Standard & Poor’s explains in a new report that it sees M&A as just one of the ways traditional players are responding to the threat posed by ongoing reinsurance and capital markets convergence.

The reloading of capacity after the 2017 catastrophe losses showed that the scare factor has gone for investors, according to S&P analyst Taoufik Gharib, meaning that fears of a softer-for-longer rate environment are unlikely to deter capital providers and as a result rate momentum is likely to fade in 2019.

Insurer American International Group (AIG) is likely to continue to acquire increasing amounts of reinsurance protection, as it utilises reinsurance capital as a lever for performance improvements across its book and is already approaching reinsurer markets about new opportunities in the second-half of this year.

AXA and XL Group, who’s M&A deal is scheduled for completion soon, have ceded more risk to reinsurance or retrocession counterparties, as the pair make good on promises to control their combined exposures to natural catastrophe events.