Latest France Headlines
All the headlines from our France Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Islamic Militants Could Target Nuclear Industry, Security Experts Warn
Apr 1 2016 // Meter-thick concrete walls and 1950s-style analog control rooms help protect nuclear plants from bomb attacks and computer hackers, but Islamist militants are turning their attention to the atomic industry’s weak...
Update: AXA’s Chairman & CEO De Castries to Retire Early; Buberl Named CEO
Mar 21 2016 // AXA SA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Henri de Castries is leaving earlier than expected, handing over the post of CEO to Thomas Buberl as France’s largest insurer splits its top jobs. De Castries, 61, will...
XL Catlin Restructures South Europe Insurance Operations; Managers Appointed
Mar 16 2016 // XL Catlin’s insurance segment announced that it has restructured its Southern Europe operations to include France alongside Italy and Iberia. Southern Europe is led by Regional Manager Bruno Laval, who takes on an...
Germanwings Probe Urges Change for Pilots’ Medical Privacy, License-Loss Cover
Mar 14 2016 // Pilots would lose privacy protection for health records and airlines would need insurance when the employees lose their license under a proposal from the French air-safety agency that investigated the deliberate crash of a...
Drone Flies Within 20 Feet of Air France Jet Above Paris; Investigation Under Way
Mar 4 2016 // A drone came within 5 meters (20 feet) of a potentially catastrophic collision with an Air France plane coming in to land at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, marking one of the closest encounters so far between one of the...
Chubb Names Product Line & Customer Segment Leaders for Continental Europe
Mar 4 2016 // Chubb has appointed the team that will lead product line underwriting and distribution for its Continental Europe region. Each of the newly announced positions will report to Steve Reiss, chief operating officer,...
Chubb Names Country Presidents to Lead Continental European Operations
Feb 5 2016 // Chubb has appointed the country presidents who will lead its operations in Continental Europe, with immediate effect. The country presidents will report to Jeff Moghrabi, division president, Continental Europe. These and...
Axa Buying France’s Tallest Building, Tour First
Jan 22 2016 // Axa Investment Managers Real Assets, the property unit of the French insurer, agreed to buy France’s tallest skyscraper from affiliates of Beacon Capital Partners. Axa is buying Tour First on behalf of a group of...
Bial-Portela Drug Trial Halted When 6 Are Hospitalized; One Person Is Brain Dead
Jan 15 2016 // Clinical testing on an experimental drug from Bial-Portela & Ca. SA, a closely held Portuguese company, led to six patients being hospitalized in France including one person who was put on life support and diagnosed as...
France’s CNP Assurances in Talks to Buy BTG’s Brazil Insurance Units
Jan 13 2016 // French insurer CNP Assurances has entered exclusive talks with Grupo BTG Pactual SA to buy its 51 percent stake in Brazilian insurer Pan Seguros, two sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. CNP Assurances has...
World’s Top 10 Insurers Ranked by Premium, Assets
Jan 4 2016 // The world’s largest insurer as measured by 2014 net premiums written is UnitedHealth Group Inc., according to a ranking by A.M. Best of the world’s largest insurance companies. France’s AXA S.A. kept its...
Willis Completes Acquisition of France’s Gras Savoye
Dec 30 2015 // Willis Group Holdings plc, the global risk advisory, re/insurance broking, and human capital and benefits firm, announced the completion of its acquisition of Gras Savoye, the leading French insurance broker. On April 22,...
Fitch’s Sector Outlook for UK Non-Life: Stable – French Non-Life: Negative
Dec 17 2015 // Fitch Ratings has issued reports on both the UK and the French non-life insurance sectors. The UK report indicates that “operating conditions within the UK non-life company market are expected to remain stable in...
The Perilous North Atlantic – Europe’s War Time American Lifeline
Nov 10 2015 // Crossing the North Atlantic on a modern ocean liner is a pleasant and mostly uneventful experience these days. But gazing into the depths of the presently rather stormy ocean evokes the past, and the deadly conflicts,...
Lance Armstrong Settles Tour de France Case with SCA Promotions
Oct 5 2015 // With a payment and an apology, Lance Armstrong has settled a decade-long dispute with a promotions insurer that sought repayment of more than $10 million in bonuses it paid the former cyclist during a career that was later...
Europe’s Rich Families – Such as EXOR’s Agnellis – Turn Dealmakers
Sep 29 2015 // John Elkann, the leader of Italy’s billionaire Agnelli family, has a way of preparing his relatives for a big takeover battle that you won’t see at your everyday company. In June, he gathered two branches of...
Armstrong Settles with Dallas Insurer Over Tour de France Bonuses
Sep 28 2015 // Lance Armstrong settled a cycling promotion court fight on confidential terms but still has a lawsuit over a U.S. Postal Service sponsorship to contend with. Armstrong settled two related lawsuits with SCA Promotions Inc....
France Expands Search for MH 370 Debris at Malaysia’s Request
Aug 7 2015 // The French government has responded to a request from Malaysia for more help in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane. France said it would send planes, boats and helicopters to scour the coast of the remote...
AXA’s First-Half 2015 Profits up 2.3% on U.S., French Life Insurance Gains
Aug 4 2015 // French insurer AXA SA said first-half profit rose 2.3 percent, helped by higher life-insurance earnings in the U.S. and France. Net income at France’s biggest insurer climbed to €3.08 billion ($3.37 billion) from...
Two Uber Executives Detained by French Police Pending Investigation
Jun 30 2015 // French police have detained two executives from Uber for questioning as a government clampdown intensifies on the U.S.-based taxi and ride-sharing service. Thibaud Simphal, manager of Uber France, and Pierre-Dimitri...
