New Zealand News

Insurance Australia Group to Acquire New Zealand Insurer AMI

Insurance Australia Group Limited (IAG) announced it had entered into an agreement to purchase the AMI insurance business for NZ$380 million (approximately A$288 million [US$287.96 million), enhancing its position as New Zealand’s leading general insurer. IAG’s bulletin noted that the …

Best Issues Special Report on New Zealand’s Non-Life Insurance Market

A new report from A.M. Best examines New Zealand’s non-life insurance market, which it describes as being “in a state of transformation as it grapples with prolonged earthquake activity in addition to regulatory developments.” The report, “New Zealand’s Insurance Market …

Stricken New Zealand Container Ship May Break Apart or Sink

Salvage crews raced Monday to pump oil from a stricken ship teetering on a reef off the New Zealand coast, while also preparing for the worst: Authorities believe the vessel will break apart or sink soon. The salvage work resumed …

New Zealand Says Oil Spill ‘Worst-ever Maritime Environmental Disaster’

Rough weather has jostled a cargo ship stuck off New Zealand’s coast and worsened its oil leak fivefold to make it the country’s worst-ever maritime environmental disaster, the government said Tuesday. Clumps of heavy oil from the Liberia-flagged Rena have …

Aon Benfield: Reinsurers Expected to Pay 2/3 of Australia, NZ Cat Losses

Aon Benfield, the global reinsurance intermediary and capital advisor of Aon Corp, has issued a bulletin indicating that Australian and New Zealand insurers, who were hit with “catastrophic events” in 2010 and 2011, had “nearly two-thirds of the losses reinsured.” …

NZ Minister Says Deal in Global Climate Talks ‘Still within Reach’

A global deal on a pact to succeed the U.N.’s main climate agreement is still within reach but will not be struck this year, with the pace of talks still far too slow, New Zealand’s top climate negotiator said on …

7,500 Earthquakes Shake Resolve in Christchurch, New Zealand

It’s been 10 months since the first big earthquake struck New Zealand’s second-largest city. It’s been nearly five months since a far more devastating one killed 181 people and crippled the downtown. And it’s been just a few hours since …

AXIS Puts Q2 Cat Losses at $90-$105 Million; Updates Q1 Estimates

Bermuda-based AXIS Capital Holdings Limited has estimated that the total net financial impact of the June 2011 aftershock in New Zealand and the series of severe weather events that occurred in the U.S. in April and May 2011 are expected …

New Zealand Offers to Pay 5,000 to Leave Quake-Hit Homes

New Zealand’s government said that it will offer to pay thousands of homeowners to leave areas of the country’s second-largest city that were hardest hit by recent earthquakes. Christchurch was struck by a magnitude-7.1 earthquake in September and a devastating …

New Zealand Quakes Drive Insurance Market Changes

A string of earthquakes in New Zealand is sending tremors through the global insurance market with some companies delaying underwriting policies and others turning to capital markets to offset the risk of pile-on damage and costly claims. “Although there has …