Financial news in brief

Hampden turns 2009 profit

Lloyd’s members’ agency Hampden Underwriting swung to a net profit of £724,000 for the year ended 31 December 2009, from a loss of £48,000 for the full year of 2008. The firm’s GWP for 2009 was £8.6m, a 64% increase on 2008’s £5.2m. But the firm said the Chilean earthquake and the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion will impact the 2009 account and adversely affect some earlier estimates. Nevertheless, Hampden maintains its profit target for the year of 5%-12.5% of capacity, excluding prior-year releases.

Omega GWP goes up 18%

Insurer and reinsurer Omega Insurance Holdings had $124.5m (£86m) GWP in the first quarter of 2010, up 18% on the $105.5m it wrote in the same period of 2009. Premiums related to Omega’s participation in Lloyd’s Syndicate 958 increased 16% to $87.4m, Omega Bermuda’s premiums were up 13% to $26.5m, while Omega US’s premiums grew by 56% to $10.6m. Omega’s loss estimate from the Chilean earthquake remains at $23m, while its Deepwater Horizon loss is estimated at $5.6m.

Syndicates’ forecasts cut

Lloyd’s managing agencies Kiln and Hiscox have cut their results estimates for 2009 for some of their syndicates. Kiln has reduced the estimate for Syndicate 510 to 9.4%-14.4% of total capacity from its previous estimate of

13.1%-18.1%; for Syndicate 557 to 11.2%-16.2% from 13.4%-18.4%; and for Syndicate 807 to 3.3%-8.3% from 5.3%-10.3%. But it boosted its 2009 result estimate for Syndicate 308 to 0.7%-5.7% of capacity from -1.5%-3.5%. Hiscox has reduced its estimate for Syndicate 6104’s 2009 result to 20%-35% of capacity from 35%-50%.