Bermuda Shorts

Presenters will critically examine major economic, political and social issues with the aim of helping Congress attendees comprising some of the world's leading corporations gain a better understanding of the changing face of risk and its evolving impact on the business world.

The first day of the programme will focus on world risk with former U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen, former WTO Director and Prime Minister of New Zealand Mike Moore, and former Dutch Minister for the Environment and President of the Kyoto Conference Dr. Jan Pronk, among distinguished speakers drawn from politics, science, economics and academia. Day two will examine global business issues with Chairman of AXIS Capital Holdings Limited Michael A. Butt moderating a panel of leading business executives in discussing ãTransferring global business risks.ä

A full programme of the XL Capital Congress presentations and speaker details will be announced soon.

XL President and Chief Executive Officer Brian M. O'Hara said: ãOur industry tends to adopt a slightly blinkered view of risk. What the XL Capital Congress 2003 will do is encourage us to remove the blinkers and look at global risk through a different lens that will bring existing perspectives into sharper focus while offering new insights on issues that directly impact our business strategies.

QBE gets top rating from ACE

QBE Insurance Group Ltd., Australia's largest international property and casualty insurer, snared top rank at Lloydâs of London from Ace Ltd. by increasing underwriting in the worldâs largest insurance market by 25 percent.

QBE boosted premium capacity at Lloyd's to 1.04 billion pounds ($1.66 billion) this year from 830 million pounds in 2002 as policy prices rose. Bermuda-based Ace cut its Lloyd's business by 19 per cent to 725 million pounds to meet asbestos claims.

ãLloyd's is where QBE thinks the biggest premium rate increases will be,'ä said Nick Caley, an analyst at ABN Amro Holding NV in Sydney. ãIt could become their dominant profit stream.ä Caley rates QBE ãadd.ä

Lloydâs posted its first profit in six years in 2002 after raising premium prices at the fastest pace in decades to compensate for losses following terrorist attacks in the U.S. It earned 834 million pounds last year, compared with a record loss of 3.1 billion pounds in 2001.

LOM shares free trading

LOM (Holdings) Limited confirmed to the Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX) that the remainder of its restricted shares became free trading effective July 21. These shares represent the outstanding Founder shares released 24 months after LOMâs listing on the BSX on July 20, 2001 and in accordance with the schedule noted in LOMâs Information Memorandum.

PVAXX purchase agreement

PVAXX Ltd., a Bermuda based commercial materials sales corporation announced the bilateral execution of an exclusive purchase and sale agreement with PVAXX Industries LLC., a new Bahraini enterprise that is controlled by HRH Shaikh Abdulla Bin Hamid Bin Issa Al Khalifa. The company has granted exclusivity to the purchaser for the worldwide use and supply of certain PVAXX Unifiers, to be combined with the Purchaserâs mineral(s) that will allow the purchaser to produce commercial products on a global distribution basis. The purchaser will be required to purchase PVAXX Unifier at a price of approx $2,000 per tonne over an initial thirty-six (36) month period as follows: 1) Tonnage of 60,000 tonnes during the Aug 2003-4 term; 2) Tonnage of 120,000 tonnes during the Aug 2004-5 term; 3) Tonnage of 240,000 tonnes during the Aug 2005-6 term.

The agreement will have full force and effect on August 1, 2003 and remains subject to due diligence review until that date. Provided both parties satisfactorily conclude such due diligence review period, the agreement will contribute significantly towards helping the company achieve its business plans.[[In-content Ad]]