Weill, Former Citigroup chief, Named Chairman of Cohen’s Former Reinsurer

Sanford “Sandy” Weill, the previous head of Citigroup Inc., turned into named chairman of the board at Hamilton coverage organization Ltd., which runs the reinsurer that hedge fund supervisor Steven A. Cohen exited.

“Sandy Weill is an icon inside the economic services zone,” Hamilton chief government Officer Brian Duperreault said the day past in a assertion. “I don't have any doubt that our aim of organising a main insurance and reinsurance enterprise might be found out.”

Weill, eighty, helped engineer the 1998 merger of insurer travelers organization Inc. and Citicorp, ushering within the generation of U.S. banking conglomerates.

Cohen, the billionaire founder of SAC Capital Advisors LP, sold the reinsurer remaining month after his hedge fund reached a $1.8 billion deal to give up a crook research into insider buying and selling. Duperreault, the previous CEO of coverage broking Marsh & McLennan Cos., is partnering with quantitative hedge fund company  Sigma Investments LLC on the Bermuda-based reinsurer.

“Brian’s teaming up with two Sigma marries coverage information with an first rate document of investment know-how, a combination that I believe will paintings nicely,” Weill said in the assertion.

Weill stepped down in 2006 as chairman of latest York-primarily based Citigroup. He said in 2012 that massive U.S. lenders have to be damaged as much as guard taxpayers.

tourists’ Fishman

“Sandy brings a first-rate amount of insurance enjoy,” Jay Fishman, the CEO of property insurer vacationers Cos. who worked with Weill at Citigroup, stated in an electronic mail. “together with his industry and extensive monetary-offerings understanding, he’ll offer incredible leadership to the Board. Given all the adjustments taking place inside the reinsurance environment, it’ll be exciting to observe Hamilton’s method.”

Weill could be able to assist Duperreault if Hamilton decides to shop for other reinsurers, said Meyer Shields, an analyst at KBW. The enterprise is turning into more focused because corporations prefer to do enterprise with fewer reinsurers, Shields said.

“He’s seen as a completely smart acquirer,” Shields stated by way of smartphone. “What it way is that offers are inside the offing.”

Hamilton had approximately $800 million in capitalization as of Dec. 31, in line with the announcement. The reinsurer formerly referred to as SAC Re Ltd. raised $500 million in a non-public placement from founding buyers inclusive of Cohen and private-fairness fund Capital Z companions, consistent with a assertion in 2012.

Reinsurers shoulder dangers for number one insurers. Duperreault said closing month that Hamilton will attention on catastrophe protection and will seek opportunities in different sorts of insurance.

huge Names

The industry has drawn a number of Wall avenue’s biggest names searching for get admission to to capital for making an investment and tax advantages in places like Bermuda or the Cayman Islands. Bermuda-based totally 1/3 point Reinsurance Ltd., with billionaire hedge-fund supervisor Daniel Loeb as a founding shareholder, raised more than $three hundred million in an initial public providing ultimate 12 months.

Weill will bring monetary acumen and relationships to Hamilton, said Michael White, president of Michael White associates LLC, a Radnor, Pennsylvania-based totally economic-services consulting firm.

“he's a builder, he is an acquirer, he makes things larger,” White stated. “He’s a huge name in economic services and he is aware of a ton of human beings. He can get things accomplished.”

Reinsurers may ought to be counted extra on funding returns after a decline in what the groups charge for safety. costs for belongings-catastrophe reinsurance fell eleven percentage on policies up for renewal on Jan. 1, according to a unit of Marsh & McLennan, the world’s biggest coverage dealer. lower-than- common losses from natural screw ups and an influx of coins from 1/3-party investors contributed to the drop, consistent with the broker’s reinsurance unit.

“Our preferred outlook for 2014 remains pessimistic,” Amit Kumar, an analyst at Macquarie group Ltd. wrote this week in a studies observe on reinsurers. “third celebration capital nevertheless keeps to enter the prop-cat space.