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AmTrust adjourns meeting; Fidelis launches sidecar; Cigna in Asia data breach

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AmTrust adjourns meeting; Fidelis launches sidecar; Cigna in Asia data breach

AmTrust Financial Services Inc. management may need to increase the company's sale price to lock down support from activist investor Carl Icahn, Keefe Bruyette & Woods equity analyst Meyer Shields told S&P Global Market Intelligence. The insurer yesterday decided to adjourn a special shareholder meeting after an assessment indicated that the transaction did not have enough minority support to proceed. It will now meet with Icahn to try to find a way forward.

In more M&A news, Fidelity National Financial Inc. received a request for additional information and documentary material, or a second request, from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, in connection with its pending acquisition of Stewart Information Services Corp.

Bermuda-based Sompo International completed its acquisition of Lexon Surety Group LLC.

And Japan's Daido Life Insurance Co., a unit of T&D Holdings Inc., agreed to acquire a 14.9% voting equity stake in Australian life insurance company Integrity Group Holdings Ltd.

In reinsurance, Fidelis Insurance Holdings Ltd. launched a Bermuda-domiciled special purpose insurer, Socium Re Ltd., which has secured capital commitments of approximately $45 million from third-party investors and approximately $5 million from Fidelis. Socium Re Ltd. will reinsure a share of Fidelis' worldwide excess of loss portfolio under a quota share agreement.

A U.S. primary insurance company sponsored a $53.3 million Eclipse Re Ltd. (series 2018-01A) private catastrophe bond, renewing a transaction completed a year earlier. The deal will provide protection against U.S. property catastrophe risks, Artemis reported.

Global Atlantic Financial Group Ltd. closed a reinsurance transaction involving The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc.'s sale of Talcott Resolution Inc. to an investor group. It reinsured from Talcott Resolution $9 billion of fixed deferred annuities, as well as other spread-based reserves.

Meanwhile, U.S. individual life insurance new annualized premium slid 2% year over year in the first quarter, marking the third consecutive quarter of declines, according to LIMRA. The total number of policies sold in the first quarter decreased 3% year over year.

The U.S. Supreme Court said it would not hear a request by Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. and several subsidiaries to review a 2017 ruling in connection with New York's move to close a workers' compensation fund, Reuters reported.

A change in accounting for equity securities brings volatility to some re/insurance companies' 2018 net earnings, Fitch Ratings said. The accounting change was a bid to bring the U.S. more in line with international accounting practices.

Cigna Corp. erroneously sent out private data of some of its customers in the Asia-Pacific region due to a system error, Bloomberg reported. The company's claim system had issued information, which include bank account details and claim settlement communications, to some customers and healthcare providers.

Lloyd's of London insurer Canopius AG is withdrawing from professional indemnity and financial institutions business lines in London, re-Insurance.com reported.

Meanwhile, MS Amlin PLC will shutter its Lloyd's service company in India, where it had been the first to set up an operation on the Lloyd's India platform, according to The Insurance Insider.

Italy's Generali and Germany's Allianz Group signed bancassurance partnerships with Italian lender UniCredit SpA in Central and Eastern Europe.

And Moody's revised the outlook on China's life insurance sector to stable from negative, saying it expects further deterioration in Chinese life insurers' creditworthiness to be prevented in the next 12 to 18 months.

Featured news

Roche cancer combo extends patients' lives; US FDA changes drug review process: Roche's cancer drugs Tecentriq and Avastin plus chemotherapy stopped lung cancer from growing in a study, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is implementing measures that would improve drug review efficiency by at least 20%.

Financial news in other parts of the world

Asia-Pacific: Japan's Daido Life in Australian M&A; Fitch downgrades Punjab National Bank

Europe: UK raises £2.5B from RBS stake sale; SocGen settles US probes for $1.3B

Middle East & Africa: Cerberus bids for Abraaj's PE unit; Deutsche Bank to scale back in South Africa

The day ahead

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

In Asia, Hang Seng gained 0.31% to 31,093.45, while the Nikkei 225 rose 0.28% to 22,539.54.

In Europe, around midday, the FTSE 100 dropped 0.33% to 7,715.60, and the Euronext 100 lifted 0.55% to 1,070.93.

On the macro front

The Redbook, the US Services Purchasing Managers' Index, the Institute For Supply Management non-manufacturing index and the Labor Department's JOLTS report are due out today.

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