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UnitedHealth eyeing Envision unit; Trump wants concessions to back ACA fix plan

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UnitedHealth eyeing Envision unit; Trump wants concessions to back ACA fix plan

UnitedHealth Group Inc. is among the bidders for an ambulatory services unit of Envision Healthcare Corp., Bloomberg reported. Activist investor Starboard Value expressed interest in acquiring Envision last year. If UnitedHealth wins the bid for the surgical unit, Envision's remaining assets could be acquired by two buyout groups. Separately, Pegasystems Inc. CEO Alan Trefler, in an interview to CNBC, said clients, such as UnitedHealth, will "benefit largely" from his company's foray into artificial intelligence.

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration wants Congress to adopt provisions, such as allowing health insurers to charge older people higher premiums, to shore up the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, exchanges, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a memo. Other provisions include expanding access to health savings accounts and integrating them with a broader number of plans and allowing renewal of short-term plans. The administration also supported the use of cost-sharing reduction payments to lower premiums and stabilize the exchanges in the memo.

A New Jersey Senate committee supported legislation that required state residents to purchase an insurance plan or pay a fee to protect the ACA marketplace, according to NJ.com. The Trump administration repealed the individual mandate through the tax law approved last year.

With annual take-up rates rising 20% to 30% in the next several years, written premium for the commercial cyber liability market will total $6.2 billion by 2020, Verisk Analytics Inc. estimated.

Cigna Corp. hopes to increase revenues by almost a third per year in the Middle East following its acquisition of Zurich Insurance Group AG's regional arm last year, The National reported.

Atlas Financial Holdings Inc. CEO Scott Wollney and CFO Paul Romano Jr. are facing a class-action complaint after the company announced that it strengthened its reserves. The complaint alleges that the company made false and/or misleading statements and failed to disclose material adverse facts about the company's business, operations and prospects.

The impact of the U.S. tax law is credit positive for U.S.-based insurance companies, as it will boost profitability and make them more competitive with their global counterparts, Moody's said. P&C insurers and reinsurers are poised to benefit from the law, while life insurers are bracing for a deterioration in action-level risk-based capital ratios mainly due to the write-off of net deferred tax assets.

The world's 25 largest hedge fund managers reported 11 billion-dollar positions in financial stocks at the end of 2017, led by Icahn Capital LP's $2.56 billion stake in American International Group Inc. Apollo Global Management LLC's $2.20 billion investment in Athene Holding Ltd. came in second, although the hedge fund continues to decrease its position, this time by 35.2% in the fourth quarter of 2017.

Losses stemming from Hurricane Irma do not appear to represent the only development that negatively impacted the 2017 results of Citizens Property Insurance Corp. The Florida state-run insurer's statutory filing, which it posted recently on its website, also shows evidence of a significant drag from what President and CEO Barry Gilway has often described as an assignment-of-benefits crisis.

CVS Health Corp. on March 6 launched an offering of certain securities of varying maturity dates for an aggregate purchase price of $40 billion, which the retail pharmacy chain will use to partially fund its purchase of Aetna Inc.

Featured news

Teva accused of hampering opioid probe; drugmakers resist price caps in Maryland: Drugmakers are fighting hard against a Maryland bill that could be the first-ever law allowing the government to cap the price of expensive, brand-name drugs, warning the bill could be illegal and would discourage private investments for life-saving medicines. The bill comes as President Donald Trump and state legislatures around the country are promising to get drug costs under control.

Financial news in other parts of the world

Asia-Pacific: China to cut banks' provision ratio; Aussie bank begins talks for NZ unit sale

Europe: RBS settles US misselling claim for $500M; Deutsche Bank's DWS drawing interests

Middle East & Africa: Bank Leumi FY'17 profit up 13.7%; EU to remove Bahrain from tax blacklist

Latin America: Brazil court denies Lula plea to stay out of jail; Sul América names new VP

The day ahead

Early morning futures indicators pointed to a lower opening for the U.S. market.

In Asia, the Hang Seng fell 1.03% to 30,196.92 and the Nikkei 225 dropped 0.77% to 21,252.72.

In Europe, around midday, the FTSE 100 fell 0.01% to 7,145.94 and the Euronext 100 fell 0.46% to 1,004.58.

On the macro front

The ADP Employment Report, EIA Petroleum Status Report and the Beige Book are due out today.