GLOBAL BRIEFS

Equitas Ltd., the runoff reinsurer of Lloyd's of London's pre-1993 exposures, has reported better-than-expected results for the year ending March 31. Equitas, which reported its annual results last week, boosted its surplus to L718 million ($1.20 billion) and had an investment return of L932 million ($1.56 billion). Gross claims payments, at L2.2 billion ($3.68 billion), were lower than expected, and reinsurance recoveries reached L660 million ($1.10 million). . . .London-based Sedgwick Insurance Strategy Ltd. has launched a new global underwriting index based on Lloyd's results. The index means that investors now can establish a market price for reinsurance in relation to Lloyd's overall trading performance, enabling reinsurance and options contracts for Lloyd's business to be traded. The minimum trade is L1,000 ($1,706) per 1% of Lloyd's loss ratio, and bids are posted on INSTRAT's Web site, www.instrat.co.uk/index. . . .Swissair, the operator of the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 that crashed off the Canadian coast last month, killing all 229 people on board, will pay $25,000 Canadian ($16,550) to a fund managed by Canadian fishing associations to make up for lost incomes from fishing in the aftermath of the accident. At the same time, the airline has said it expects additional lawsuits from the families of passengers on board Flight 111, which included senior businessmen, scientists and United Nations personnel. One suit was filed recently by former boxing champion Jake LaMotta, whose son died in the crash. An airline spokesman said Swissair is well-insured for any exposures but did not expect the cause of the crash to be determined for at least several weeks. . . .Millennium Bug specialist Prove It 2000 has calculated that up to 300,000 U.K. jobs are threatened by the Year 2000 problem. The Huntingdon, England-based Year 2000 expert polled 10,000 U.K. companies and found that 80% had not even started to tackle the problem. In addition, about 10% of the companies polled said their systems definitely will not be compliant by January 2000. . . .An additional 2.5% of liabilities is to be paid out to creditors of Bryanston Insurance Co. Ltd. under the scheme of arrangement administered by Paul Evans of PricewaterhouseCoopers. This brings the total payments so far to 22.5% under the scheme, which was set up in April 1994. At the end of last year, Bryanston had estimated total assets of $139 million against estimated liabilities of $386 million. . . .Victims of bullying at work will be able to seek advice from a Trades Union Congress telephone help line as part of the TUC's weeklong anti-bullying campaign. The information line -- 44-870-607-0310 -- will be open from today until Oct. 9. Trade union health and safety representatives are increasingly reporting bullying at work, the TUC claims. A similar help line last December received almost 2,000 calls about bullying in five days, the TUC noted. The campaign also includes a TUC-sponsored conference on dealing with workplace bullying and a guide on how to identify and tackle bullying at work. . . .Trinity Acquisition P.L.C., a company formed by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and backed by five major insurance groups to buy London-based broker Willis Corroon Group P.L.C., has received more than 90% valid acceptances under its offer for Willis Corroon. Trinity has issued notices to Willis Corroon shareholders who haven't accepted the offer, stating it plans to exercise its right to acquire compulsorily all outstanding Willis Corroon shares. . . .A.M. Best Co. has assigned an A+ (superior) rating to German insurer Haftpflichtverband der Deutschen Industrie. The rating reflects the company's strong capitalization, conservative reserving position, strong market position and competitive cost structure, said Best. It also reflects the company's role as holding company for the HDI Group, which includes Hannover Re Group.