Latest France Headlines
All the headlines from our France Topic Page, ordered by recency.
French Insurer’s Net Profit Drops by Half in 2001
Mar 5 2002 // According to a report by the Associated Press, French insurer Axa SA’s net profit will decrease to 1.2 billion euros (about $1 billion), more than half in 2001, as quoted by Chairman Henri de Castries in the French...
Concorde Crash Report Confirms Lost Part as Proximate Cause
Jan 18 2002 // The Bureau Enquêtes Accident (BEA), the investigation agency charged with examining the crash of the Air France supersonic Concorde near Paris in July 2000, has released its final report. It confirms that the plane...
CGNU Nears Deal w/ Groupama on French Commercial Lines
Jan 7 2002 // As earlier reported (see IJ Website Dec. 27), CGNU is close to concluding a deal to sell its French commercial lines business, CGU Courtage, to French mutual insurer Groupama. The transaction highlights the restructuring...
Sales and Acquisitions in French Insurance Market
Dec 27 2001 // A flurry of year end transactions is changing the face of the French insurance market. The MMA-MAAF Group has reportedly agreed to acquire the French units of Swiss based Winterthur Group. CGU Courtage, the commercial...
The World’s New Respect for the U.S.
Dec 24 2001 // Remarkably few events are timed precisely enough to shift the focus of an entire nation. In the last century only three come immediately to mind—August 1914, October 1929 and December 1941. While change is the only true...
The World’s New Respect for the U.S.
Dec 17 2001 // Remarkably few events are timed precisely enough to shift the focus of an entire nation. In the last century only three come immediately to mind—August 1914, October 1929 and December 1941. While change is the only true...
Concorde Flies Again
Nov 8 2001 // 15 Months after a fiery crash in a Paris suburb brought its flights to an abrupt halt, Concorde, the world’s only supersonic commercial aircraft, took to the skies again on two celebrity flights from London’s...
CGNU Seeks to Sell French Commercial Lines Unit
Oct 10 2001 // In a move to further streamline its European operations, the U.K.’s CGNU announced that is seeking a buyer for its French unit, CGU Courtage, the country’s third largest commercial lines insurer, which deals...
U.S.- EU To Help Airlines Cover War, Terrorist Risks
Sep 24 2001 // The governments of the U.S., the U.K. and the European Union rode to the rescue of the airline industry over the weekend when they announced separate decisions to help carriers cope with increases in premiums covering war...
AXA, Allianz Raise U.S. Attack Loss Estimates, New Disaster in France
Sep 24 2001 // Both France’s AXA Group and Germany’s Allianz AG, the world’s two largest insurance groups, raised their original estimates of potential losses from the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 in the U.S. (See IJ...
CGNU in Partnership Talks with France’s MMA
Jul 9 2001 // CGNU, Britain’s largest insurer, is in talks with the French group Mutuelles du Mans Assurances aimed at establishing a partnership arrangement which would strengthen its position in the French life and pension...
AXA’s Bébéar, de Castries Under Formal Investigation in French Tax Probe
Jul 9 2001 // On June 12, French police detained and questioned AXA’s Management Board Chairman Henri de Castries and his predecessor, the company’s founder Claude Bébéar, who now presides over its Supervisory Board, about...
AXA’s Bébéar, de Castries Under Formal Investigation in French Tax Probe
Jun 25 2001 // On June 12, French police detained and questioned AXA’s Management Board Chairman Henri de Castries and his predecessor, the company’s founder Claude Bébéar, who now presides over its Supervisory Board, about...
New Lawsuit Against Crédit Lyonnais – French Gov’t. Responds
Jun 21 2001 // California Attorney General Bill Lockyer’s lawsuit against Crédit Lyonnais (CL) and a number of other defendants, filed Tuesday in San Francisco, is the latest legal action involving the French bank and its...
AXA Founder, Chairman Released on Bail – Tax Probe Continues
Jun 15 2001 // Claude Bébéar, AXA’s founder and head of its advisory board, and its current CEO, Henri de Castries, were freed yesterday after each posted a 2 million franc ($258,000) bond. The two business leaders...
Lloyd’s Admits Non-U.K. Based Brokers For the First Time
Apr 30 2001 // Of the six new brokers admitted to Lloyd’s select fraternity five are based outside of the U.K., marking the first time that the venerable institution has given foreign brokers direct access to the Lloyd’s...
PartnerRe Changes Name of French Unit
Mar 30 2001 // Bermuda-based PartnerRe announced that “it will change the name of its Paris organization from SAFR PartnerRe to PartnerRe SA,” effective April 1. The French operation thus joins the rest of the Group operating...
France Begins to Count the Cost As Floods Ease
Mar 27 2001 // As the latest in a series of floods, which have ravaged France this winter, showed some signs of receding, insurers began counting the potential losses. Last October’s floods in Europe cost insurers an estimated $1.2...
As Settlement Nears Concorde May Fly Again
Mar 13 2001 // A spokesman for La Réunion Aèrienne, the group of insurers* which covers Air France confirmed an earlier report Monday that they were close to reaching a settlement with the lawyers for the victims of the Concorde crash...
Concorde May Fly Again, Despite Lawsuits by Grieving Passenger Families
Feb 5 2001 // Last summer’s tragic Concorde crash continues to produce heartache as the lawsuits multiply and negotiations break down. Settlement talks between the lawyers for the victims’ families and Air France and its...
