Investors firmly focused on the commercial potential of the next property catastrophe hard market

The Swiss Re-GE Insurance Solutions deal is a significant admission of defeat by a diversified group whose core, unshakable belief is that careful planning and operational discipline are the keys to success in any enterprise.

The unlikely surge in investor appetite for insurance stocks (unlikely because of US and Bermudian companies’ mostly dismal third quarter results; not to mention balance sheets severely impaired by record hurricane losses and the need to replace key executives under investigation by the US federal and state authorities) abated somewhat over the two weeks ending 24 November.