{"id":195799,"date":"2010-01-18T09:24:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-18T14:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3087194156628161158.post-2286250929280596272"},"modified":"2010-01-18T13:11:14","modified_gmt":"2010-01-18T18:11:14","slug":"financial-times-swiss-re-shifts-business-to-berkshire-hathaway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/195799","title":{"rendered":"FINANCIAL TIMES: Swiss Re shifts business to Berkshire Hathaway"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!-- AddThis Button BEGIN -->By Haig Simonian in Zurich <\/p>\n<p>Published: January 18 2010 13:17 | Last updated: January 18 2010 13:17<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fishpond.co.nz\/index.php?ref=695&amp;affiliate_banner_id=36\" ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.fishpond.co.nz\/affiliate_show_banner.php?ref=695&amp;affiliate_banner_id=36\" alt=\"Fishpond\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><br \/><span class=\"availability\"><\/span><span style=\"font-style: italic; font-size: 78%;\">SPONSOR<\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\" language=\"javascript\">function floatContent(){var paraNum = \"3\" paraNum = paraNum - 1;var tb = document.getElementById('floating-con');var nl = document.getElementById('floating-target');if(tb.getElementsByTagName(\"div\").length> 0){if (nl.getElementsByTagName(\"p\").length>= paraNum){nl.insertBefore(tb,nl.getElementsByTagName(\"p\")[paraNum]);}else {if (nl.getElementsByTagName(\"p\").length == 3){nl.insertBefore(tb,nl.getElementsByTagName(\"p\")[2]);}else {nl.insertBefore(tb,nl.getElementsByTagName(\"p\")[0]);}}}}<\/script><\/p>\n<p><b><a symbol=\"ch:RUKN\" href=\"http:\/\/markets.ft.com\/tearsheets\/performance.asp?s=ch:RUKN\">Swiss Re<\/a><\/b> <a class=\"bodystrong\" title=\"Swiss Re statement\" href=\"http:\/\/www.swissre.com\/pws\/media%20centre\/news\/news_releases_2010\/18jan2010_lh_retrocession_transaction.html\">said on Monday <\/a>that it would release at least SFr300m ($292m) of capital by transferring a block of US life reinsurance business to <b><a symbol=\"us:BRK.A\" href=\"http:\/\/markets.ft.com\/tearsheets\/performance.asp?s=us:BRK.A\">Berkshire Hathaway<\/a><\/b>, the US financial group controlled by Warren Buffett.<\/p>\n<p>The Swiss reinsurer, in which Mr Buffett has a stake, did not reveal any specific use for the capital released, but said it believed it could invest the money more profitably elsewhere.<\/p>\n<p>George Quinn, chief financial officer, said in a conference call that the transaction was not expected to have significant impact on profitability. Analysts broadly welcomed the release of capital and potential balance sheet strengthening.<\/p>\n<p>The Swiss group last year lost its place as the world\u2019s biggest reinsurer and is still recovering from a testing period during which it <a class=\"bodystrong\" title=\"FT Swiss Re disappoints with SFr381m loss\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ft.com\/cms\/s\/0\/17c6233e-818c-11de-9c5e-00144feabdc0,s01=1.html\">posted heavy losses <\/a>because of writedowns on investments and the severe impact of two disastrous structured credit default swaps for an unnamed client.<\/p>\n<p>The group, which last year <a class=\"bodystrong\" title=\"FT: Swiss Re\u2019s new regime to focus on cutting risks\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ft.com\/cms\/s\/0\/b041bc84-0cd6-11de-a555-0000779fd2ac.html\">switched chief executives<\/a>, has since then adopted a much more cautious investment strategy but may have lost out on growth opportunities, analysts said.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Quinn disputed that the business being transferred was entirely unprofitable, but conceded that profitability had been \u201cmarginal\u201d. He said the group had identified the block, all written before 2004, as unsatisfactory in subsequent profitability reviews, and for the past two to three years been considering options for transfer or divestment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile the historical performance of the underlying block has been mainly positive, the business does not meet Swiss Re\u2019s return hurdles,\u201d the group said in slides to investors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a small piece of portfolio management, but it\u2019s not life-changing for the firm\u201d, said Mr Quinn.<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"comments\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Share Investor Links<\/span><\/a><a name=\"comments\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.shareinvestorblog.com\/\">Share Investor Blog<\/a> &#8211; Stockmarket &amp; Business commentary<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/shareinvestornz.blogspot.com\/2007\/02\/new-zealand-business-news.html\">Share Investor New Zealand Business News<\/a>&#8211; Get more business news<br \/>Discuss this topic @<a href=\"http:\/\/www.shareinvestorforum.com\/\"> Share Investor Forum<\/a> &#8211; 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The Swiss [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":833,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/833"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195799\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}