1855: Cotesworth & Co founded as a Lloyd's managing agency.
1988: Syndicate 536 reports a 24% profit, due to reinsurance purchases under active underwriter Tony Berry, despite £70m of gross claims.
1989: Syndicate 536 posts 25% profits and claims back £174m on reinsurance.
1990: Syndicate 536 records profit increase of 4.5%, claiming £172.6m on reinsurance.
1994: Corporate capital is introduced to Lloyd's for the first time and £1.6bn is injected into the market.
1998: HIH Australia acquires Cotesworth. It gradually becomes the predominant capacity supplier for the syndicates and can make a compulsory offer to purchase the rest of the capacity. Cotesworth reports a loss of 58% and underwriter Berry resigns from syndicate 536.
1999: Cotesworth suffers severe losses – syndicates 535 and 536 report 43.5% losses, syndicate 1069 shows a 30% loss and syndicate 228 records a 21% loss.
2000: Further losses reported – syndicate 535 suffers 21% loss, syndicate 1069 shows 14% loss and syndicate 228 records 30% loss.
2001: Syndicate 535 underwriting energy and marine insurance incorporates former marine syndicate 228. Non-marine syndicate 1688 also merges with syndicate 1069. HIH Australia increases its backing from 71% to 80%.
March 2001: Parent company HIH Australia goes into liquidation and Cotesworth begins the search for new funding.
July 2001: Ratings agency Standard & Poors suspends syndicate 535's performance assessment from five bells (top rank) to “not assigned”.
August 2001: The syndicates suspend underwriting with immediate effect.
September 2001: Syndicates 535 and 1688 are put into run-off, with an annual premium capacity of more than £200m.
Hosted by comedian and actor Tom Allen, 34 Gold, 23 Silver and 22 Bronze awards were handed out across an amazing 34 categories recognising brilliance and innovation right across the breadth of UK general insurance.
