Zurich Insurance Group AG is nearing an agreement to acquire UK specialty insurer Beazley Plc and raise billions of dollars in equity to help fund the deal, according to people familiar with the matter. The Swiss insurer is likely to announce a firm, recommended bid for Beazley as early as Monday, the people said. Simultaneously, the Swiss company is expected to tap investors for $3 billion to $5 billion by March 4, the latest deadline for it to make a definite offer for Beazley, one of the people said. The final timing, and size of the equity raise, could still…
Author: Awais
The state of New Hampshire and a federal judge remain on a collision course over the fate of the state’s motor vehicle safety and emissions inspection program. An injunction against a new law that sought to abolish the mandatory inspection and maintenance program for non-commercial vehicles as of January 31 remains in effect. However, there are no inspections being done because the state has refused to renew the contract of the long-time and only vendor, Gordon-Darby. On Wednesday of this week U.S. District Court Judge Landya McCafferty denied a request by the state to stay an injunction against enforcement of…
A Tennessee man was released on bond after he was indicted for allegedly collecting premiums then absconding with the money. Richard Darrel Wolfe, 67, of Hendersonville, was indicted by a Sumner County grand jury last week, charged with 14 counts of theft and three forgery counts, dating to 2023 and 2024, court records show. He has a court hearing set for March 6. Investigators began looking into Wolfe’s alleged actions in November, after several local businesses alleged that the man had sold insurance policies but had not secured coverage, The Hendersonville Standard and other news sites reported. The National Association…
The Pentagon accidentally shot down a US Customs and Border Protection drone on the Texas border with Mexico using a high-energy laser, according to people familiar with the matter, weeks after a similar incident led to confusion and exposed communication lapses among several US agencies. The Defense Department didn’t realize the drone was being flown by CBP when it shot it down, the people said. The military had not first coordinated the use of the laser system with the US Federal Aviation Administration, which was notified Wednesday after the event occurred, according to two of the people, who were granted…
Britain’s government on Friday appointed a former regulator and current Barclays BARC.L executive, Katharine Braddick, as the Bank of England’s next deputy governor for prudential regulation to try to boost sluggish economic growth. Last year, finance minister Rachel Reeves criticized regulators for being “a boot on the neck of businesses,” raising concerns at the Bank of England, whose governor, Andrew Bailey, has said the lessons of the 2008 global financial crisis risk being forgotten. Braddick worked at Britain’s Financial Services Authority and the Bank of England as a bank regulator before joining the finance ministry and then moving to Barclays…
Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co. Ltd., the Japanese primary insurance group, is back in the catastrophe bond market to sponsor an initially $100 million Kizuna Re III Pte. Ltd. (Series 2026-1) transaction, that is designed to provide collateralized earthquake reinsurance protection and is being issued out of Singapore, Artemis has learned.This will become the tenth catastrophe bond we have included in our extensive Deal Directory that will provide reinsurance to part of the Tokio Marine Holdings group of companies and now the seventh in the Kizuna Re series of cat bond deals. Tokio Marine has been sponsoring catastrophe…
Last year, as the California hospital where she worked was appeasing the Trump administration by erasing words like “equity” and “diversity” from its paperwork, Brandy Frye had seen enough. Frye, an emergency room nurse with 25 years of experience, felt that ignoring inequality’s role in health and sickness was an affront to the compassionate soul of the nursing profession. “It felt like a step against everything I believe in,” Frye said. “And I didn’t feel like I belonged there anymore.” Email Sign-Up Subscribe to KFF Health News’ free weekly newsletter, “The Week in Brief.” Now Frye has found a new place to…
Property buyers are catching a rare break after six years of hardening
Surveillance video captured the dramatic moment a sinkhole opened up on a busy intersection in south-central Omaha, Nebraska, swallowing up two vehicles. The incident happened Tuesday afternoon in a trendy section of the Midwest city, when a sport utility vehicle and a pickup truck waiting at a traffic light dropped into a hole several feet deep when the pavement under them suddenly gave way. Neither driver was injured, police said. The driver of the truck was able to get out of the sinkhole on his own, then joined other bystanders who helped the SUV driver out of the hole, police…
Big ‘I’ report reveals overload and data gaps are slowing AI’s impact
State Farm will issue dividends to Louisiana drivers totaling $136 million following stronger than expected underwriting performances nationally. State Farm, which writes approximately 30% of the personal auto insurance market in Louisiana, will send the dividend to policyholders this summer, according to an announcement from the Louisiana Department of Insurance. Drivers who had a State Farm Mutual Private Passenger Auto Voluntary Preferred policy in force as of Dec. 31, 2025, will receive an average payment of $138 per vehicle. “Today’s news is a great example that when an insurance company’s total losses go down—whether through a national trend of fewer…
A fire at an Ohio hog farm complex killed about 6,000 pigs and unleashed a large plume of smoke that could be seen for miles across the rural landscape, an official said. Multiple fire departments responded amid sustained winds of about 20 mph (32 kph) and gusts reaching up to 35 mph (56 kph), which accelerated the fire’s spread, and because water supplies in the area were limited, extensive water shuttle operations were needed. Two of five large agricultural buildings were “heavily involved in fire,” and it took five hours to bring it under control, Chief Brian Bennington of the…
Higginbotham announced it has acquired Monarch Solutions Inc., a firm that supports high-net-worth individuals with insurance related strategies that are intended to provide tax savings and estate liquidity. Monarch founder and now Higginbotham Managing Director Kevin Klaas will be based at Higginbotham’s Fort Worth headquarters, with Operations Manager Ann Marie Coyle continuing to lead the team at Monarch’s field office. Monarch is based in Chicago and has a Dallas office. Topics Mergers & Acquisitions Illinois Was this article valuable? Yes No Here are more articles you may enjoy. Interested in Mergers? Get automatic alerts for this topic.
OpenAI said it banned accounts linked to Chinese law enforcement, romance scammers and influence operations, including a smear campaign against Japan’s first woman prime minister, in a report detailing the misuse of its ChatGPT technology. The company said several accounts used its chatbot alongside other tools, including social media accounts, to carry out cybercrimes while posing as a dating agency, law firms and U.S. officials, among others. Here are some details from OpenAI: A small set of accounts that likely originated in China used OpenAI’s models to request information about U.S. persons, online forums and federal building locations, and sought…