Printed from BusinessInsurance.com

GLOBAL BRIEFS

Posted On: Jan. 19, 1997 12:00 AM CST

A team of 12 people is leaving Willis Corroon Group P.L.C.'s marine operations in London to join Carpenter Bowring Ltd., a Willis spokesman confirmed last week. The team is led by Simon Wilson, managing director of marine operations. Willis Corroon has 300 employees in its marine division. . . .Zurich Insurance Co. has acquired a controlling interest in Swiss legal protection insurer Orion Rechtsschutz Versicherungsgesellschaft by buying 44% of Orion's shares. Added to the 12% already held by Zurich subsidiary Geneva General Insurance Co., the new shares make Zurich the majority shareholder in Orion. Zurich has struck a partnership agreement with minority shareholders Swiss National Insurance Co. Ltd. and Waadt Insurance Holdings. . . .Economic Insurance, acquired by Hiscox P.L.C. last July, has changed its name to Hiscox Insurance Co. and has become the authorized insurer operating under the Hiscox P.L.C. banner. Hiscox P.L.C. also includes Hiscox syndicates at Lloyd's of London and Hiscox Underwriting Ltd. . . .Corporate and insurance fraud investigator Bishop International Ltd., has ceased being a subsidiary of Merrett Holdings P.L.C. after a management buyout. It becomes the last of the Merrett UK Insurance Services subsidiaries to sever connections with Merrett Holdings. . . .CNA International Reinsurance Co. Ltd. has established a Lloyd's of London syndicate, 1229, with a stamp capacity of (British pounds)25 million ($42.8 million) in its first year. It will write facultative and short-tail insurance and reinsurance and other lines not normally written by CNA in the company market. Bermudan reinsurer LaSalle Re Holdings Ltd. is underwriting (British pounds)8.3 million ($13.39 million) on syndicate 1229, as the only other member of the syndicate, through newly formed LaSalle Re Corporate Capital Ltd. It is also investing in marine syndicate 62 and non-marine syndicate 839, with overall capacity of (British pounds)16 million ($27.39 million) . . . Corporacion Mapfre, Spain's largest insurance group, has agreed to sell a 20% stake in its Argentinean subsidiary, Mapfre Aconcagua, to another Argentinean insurer, La Patagonia Cia. Argentina Seguros. La Patagonia will pay for the stake by passing on some of its business portfolio to Mapfre Aconcagua. Mapfre said the agreement will combine

its insurance management strengths with La Patagonia's access to the large commercial market. . . .Paris-based Assurances Generales de France has mandated Shroeders Bank in Paris to examine the future of the insurer's 47% stake in reinsurer Societe Anonyme Francaise de Reassurance. AGF Chairman Antoine Geoncourt Galignani said recently that the company's core interests are in transport ation and credit insurance, not reinsurance. "We don't know yet if we will sell it," an AGF spokeswoman in Paris said. "That is one of the options."