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GLOBAL BRIEFS

Posted On: Nov. 23, 1997 12:00 AM CST

London broker Lambert Fenchurch Group P.L.C. is acquiring New York-based employee benefits broker and consulting firm Michael Kooper Enterprises Inc. for an initial payment of $3 million, with the possibility that up to $32 million more could be paid, depending on the consultant's profitability. Michael Kooper will continue as president of the company, which will fall under the newly formed Lowndes Lambert U.S. Holdings Inc. . . .French reinsurance broker Gras Savoye Reassurance and Willis Faber & Dumas Reassurance France, the Paris-based reinsurance offshoot of London broker Willis Corroon P.L.C., are merging their operations from the beginning of next year. This is the first step to follow the agreement last July between Gras Savoye S.A. and Willis Corroon for Willis to acquire a controlling interest in Gras Savoye within 12 years. . . .The U.K. Export Credits Guarantee Department is backing a $555 million loan for U.K. companies wanting to become involved in a liquefied natural gas plant in the Sultanate of Oman. . . .U.K. ratings agency Standard & Poor's has assigned a BBB+ rating to Gan Insurance Co. Ltd, part of Gan (U.K.) P.L.C. . . .Australian insurer QBE Insurance Group Ltd. has become the first foreign insurer to enter the Ukrainian insurance market by setting up a joint venture with Ukrainian bank Ukgazprombank. . . .Jap-anese insurer Tokio Marine & Fire Insurance Co. is setting up a joint venture with First Chicago NBD Corp. to provide management services for risks associated with non-warrantied financial products, such as futures. The new venture, First Chicago Tokio Marine Financial Products Ltd., is based in the Cayman Islands and will service clients in Asia. It will open a Tokyo office at the beginning of next year. . . .Light merchant ship losses are not necessarily being converted into lower claims, according to figures released last week by the Institute of London Underwriters. In the first nine months of this year, 63 vessels of 500 gross tons or more were lost, compared with 75 in the same period last year. But major casualties increased over the nine months and continue to do so, with some major casualties in October, such as the Cypress-registered cruise liner Romantica. . . .AXA-UAP and Spanish bank Banco Bilbao Vizcaya have reorganized and merged their Spanish insurance interests to form the third-largest insurer in Spain. The combined group, yet to be named, will have a market share of 4.5% based on 1996 figures. . . .Germany's cartel authorities have given Jauch & Huebener KGaA the go-ahead to merge German, Swiss and Austrian operations with Aon Deutschland GmbH. Aon Jauch & Huebener will operate as a holding company with three operative centers: primary insurance, reinsurance brokering and benefits. A new company, Aon Re Continental Europe, has been established in Hamburg, Germany, for continental European reinsurance business.