Latest Australia Headlines
All the headlines from our Australia Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Lloyd’s Appoints Mackinnon as General Representative in Australia
Feb 3 2015 // Lloyd’s, the specialist insurance and reinsurance market, has appointed Christopher Mackinnon as its new general representative in Australia. Mackinnon starts in early February and brings with him more than 21...
QBE Selling U.S. Agency Businesses to Alliant for $300M
Jan 19 2015 // QBE Insurance Group Ltd. of Australia is selling its U.S. agency businesses to California-based Alliant Services Inc. for about $300 million and exiting the distribution business. The agencies being bought by Alliant...
How AirAsia Investigators Will Use Black Box to Crack Crash Mystery
Jan 14 2015 // Listening to a recording of ValuJet Flight 592’s last moments, investigator J.F. Joseph kept hearing sounds the pilots hadn’t talked about. “You could hear this noise clicking on and off like a pinball...
Australian Firefighters Containing Sprawling Wildfire
Jan 7 2015 // Firefighters in southern Australia were winning the battle on Tuesday to contain a sprawling wildfire raging on a 240-kilometer (150-mile) perimeter that has razed 38 homes and left two people in hospitals, officials...
Australian Wildfire Threat Eases as Cool Front Moves In
Jan 5 2015 // Cooler conditions on Sunday were helping hundreds of firefighters working to contain a massive wildfire that had forced thousands of people to flee their homes in southern Australia. A dozen homes have been destroyed by...
Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance Enters Singapore, Names Key Leaders
Dec 8 2014 // Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance (BHSI) announced that it has received its non-life insurance license in Singapore, and named Marc Breuil as regional president, Marcus Portbury as head of third party lines, and Peter...
Australia Raises El Nino Warning for Tropical Pacific
Nov 18 2014 // Australia raised an El Nino warning after the Pacific Ocean showed renewed signs of the pattern that can bring drought to parts of Asia and heavier-than-usual rain to South America. Climate models suggest current...
Arch Insurance Europe Buys Resource Underwriting Pacific in Australia
Nov 11 2014 // Arch Insurance Europe has acquired 100 percent of Resource Underwriting Pacific Pty Ltd (RUPPL), the Melbourne-based MGA. RUPPL will be added to Arch Insurance Europe’s current holdings in Australia. James...
Undersea Search for Missing Malaysian Airliner Refined
Aug 29 2014 // The massive undersea search area for a missing Malaysian airliner in the southern Indian Ocean could be extended farther south based on new satellite analysis, only weeks before the multimillion dollar, yearlong sonar hunt...
Munich Re Joins Broker Steadfast to Acquire Australia’s Calliden Insurance Operations
Aug 28 2014 // Munich Re’s primary insurance subsidiary Great Lakes Australia (GLA) has reached an agreement to support Australia’s largest broker network, Steadfast Group in their proposed acquisition of Calliden Group...
QBE Wins Time for Cleanup as Plan Reduces Risk: Australia Credit
Aug 27 2014 // QBE Insurance Group Ltd.’s John Neal is shoring up the insurer’s balance sheet by selling shares and assets. He still has work to do convincing bond investors that business is improving after three profit...
El Nino Seen Delayed to End of Year as Australia Stays on Watch
Aug 26 2014 // Australia remains on El Nino watch even as the onset of the weather event that brings drought to the Asia-Pacific region and heavier-than-usual rains to South America may be delayed to the end of the year. Four of seven...
QBE to Sell $750 Million in Shares, Some Assets as Profit Drops
Aug 19 2014 // QBE Insurance Group Ltd. plans to raise about $750 million in a share placement and sell assets including part of its lenders’ mortgage insurance business in Australia after reporting an 18 percent drop in...
Dutch firm Fugro to Lead Australian Subsea Search for Malaysia Airlines Jet
Aug 7 2014 // Dutch oil industry services firm Fugro is to lead Australia’s search of the Indian Ocean seafloor where missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 is believed to lie, hoping to solve the mystery of its disappearance five...
El Nino Odds Reduced by Australia as Tropical Pacific Cools
Jul 29 2014 // Australia cut the odds of El Nino, which brings drought to Asia and heavy rain to South America, after parts of the tropical Pacific Ocean cooled. The chance of the pattern developing this year is about 50 percent, the...
QBE Falls Most in 7 Months Amid 18% Profit Decline Forecast
Jul 29 2014 // Australia’s QBE Insurance Group Ltd. slumped the most in seven months after forecasting an 18 percent decline in first-half earnings due to higher claims in Latin America and competition with other insurers. Net...
Record Settlement Reached in Australia Wildfire Class Action Lawsuit
Jul 16 2014 // Survivors of one of Australia’s deadliest wildfires are to be awarded nearly A$500 million (US$467.5 million) in a class action settlement reached Tuesday, the largest such compensation in the nation’s...
Strong El Nino Seen Unlikely by Australia as Pacific Cools
Jul 15 2014 // The odds of a strong El Nino, which brings drought to the Asia-Pacific region and heavy rains to South America, are increasingly unlikely after the tropical Pacific Ocean cooled, according to Australia’s weather...
Australia Sees Limited G20 Appetite on New Climate Change Steps
Jul 3 2014 // Australia, this year’s G20 chair, sees little consensus among the Group of 20 leading economies to take major new steps on climate change, senior official Heather Smith said on Wednesday. Smith, the personal...
Ironshore Calls Off Acquisition of Australia’s Assetinsure
Jun 27 2014 // Bermuda-based Ironshore Inc. announced that its Australian subsidiary’s transaction to acquire all of the shares of Australia’s Assetinsure Holdings Pty Limited, the parent company of Assetinsure Pty Limited,...
