Anyone calling AXA last Friday morning might have wondered why phones were answered hastily by quiet voices. Well it seems that the company was hit by a collective hangover following company-wide celebrations on Thursday night.

There had been a celebration to commemorate the company passing £1bn of commercial lines premium in 2003. So champagne all round? Not quite. With Hubbard and colleagues playing catch up on combined ratio, it was beers all round.

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