Chart: U.S. and Bermuda Property-Casualty M&A Activity, 2004 to 2012
For the property and casualty sector, market consolidation was at the periphery.
For the property and casualty sector, market consolidation was at the periphery.
Matthew Day, Senior Vice President
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Lloyd’s capacity is an estimated GBP24.0 billion at the start of 2012, showing continued growth. Lloyd’s capacity grew from GBP15.7 billion to GBP23.3 billion between 2007 and 2011, an increase of 48 percent. GWP in that time increased 43 percent to GBP23.5 billion.
GC Securities, a division of MMC Securities (Europe) Limited, acted as financial advisor to Tower Group, Inc. (”Tower”) on its USD75 million investment into Canopius Group Limited, (”Canopius”) a privately owned Lloyd’s of London insurance holding company domiciled in Guernsey, Channel Islands.
Property & casualty (P&C) merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the United States and Bermuda in 2011, as measured by the number of transactions, was at a level below the previous year’s after being stifled by volatility in the financial markets and a difficult operating environment. In dollar terms, M&A activity for P&C risk-bearing entities in 2011 was at a higher level than that seen in the past two years (see Figure 1 below). The last six weeks of 2011 saw two of the largest deals, totaling more than USD6.3 billion combined, or almost 50 percent of the full year’s deal activity. The limited activity was in spite of attractive insurance sector valuations by absolute and relative standards, with the market value of many companies closer to estimated intrinsic value than any time in the past 20 years and the fact that potential acquirers had large cash balances. Somewhat tempering activity was the fact that many carriers turned to share buybacks as an effective use of cash to manage capital, as opposed to going on an acquisition spree.
Guy Carpenter Bermuda Reinsurance Composite, Combined Ratio, Year-End 2010
Source: Guy Carpenter & Company, LLC
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Guy Carpenter Bermuda Reinsurance Composite, Shareholders’ Funds, Year-End 2010
Source: Guy Carpenter & Company, LLC
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Guy Carpenter Bermuda Reinsurance Composite, Return on Revenue, Year-End 2010
Source: Guy Carpenter & Company, LLC
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Guy Carpenter Bermuda Reinsurance Composite, Return on Equity, Year-End 2010
Source: Guy Carpenter & Company, LLC
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Guy Carpenter Bermuda Reinsurance Composite, Source of Earnings, Year-End 2010
Source: Guy Carpenter & Company, LLC
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David Flandro, Global Head of Business Intelligence
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Shareholders’ funds for the Guy Carpenter Bermuda Reinsurance Composite grew by 4.5 percent from year-end 2009 through the third quarter of 2010, largely on the continued recovery of asset values and strong operating results. With overall market conditions failing to have improved materially over the past 18 months, companies have decided to return capital to shareholders - in the form of buybacks, primarily, as well as dividends. Capital returns through the first nine months of 2010 amounted to nearly USD6.3 billion.