Grant Murtagh and fellow HSF partner, Dylan Doran Kennett, discuss five trends affecting M&A activity in the UK’s insurance sector. Some of those trends are at the level of individual insurers (for example, changes in strategy), some are relevant to large parts of the sector (for example, broker consolidations and venture capital), while others are global trends that directly or indirectly impact the UK landscape (for example, the green and digital transitions, as well as geopolitics). It is likely that all within the sector will be affected by at least one of the topics covered. To read t ..read more

Our FSR colleagues have just released their global FSR Outlook 2024: Finding solid ground as the bedrock shifts.   In 2024, the character of change facing the financial industry is more foundational – or fundamental – in nature than ever before. From ESG to AI, the shape of the world we live in is changing in a radical way. This year, we chart the paths through the shifting landscape for financial services businesses seeking solid ground. In this year’s publication, we explore the following themes. Spinning plates – can financial services be regulated efficiently, competitively, inn ..read more

We are pleased to share with you our Insurance & Professional Risks Annual Review of 2023 which provides an overview and analysis of the key cases and developments affecting those engaged in or with contentious matters in the insurance and reinsurance market. Please click the image below to access our 2023 Annual Review.     Alexander Oddy Partner +44 20 7466 2407 Sarah McNally Partner +44 20 7466 2872 William Glassey Partner +44 20 7466 2854 Paul Lewis Partner +44 20 7466 2138 Greig Anderson Partner +44 20 7466 2229 Antonia Pe ..read more

The Court of Appeal dismissed both the policyholder’s and insurers’ appeals in Various Eateries Trading Limited v Allianz [2024] EWCA Civ 10 in one of the latest of the Covid-19 business interruption decisions coming from the courts. The principal issue on appeal concerned the effect of the aggregation wording in the policy which provided for aggregation of losses “that arise from, are attributable to or are in connection with a single occurrence“. BACKGROUND The Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing government restrictions brought significant loss of revenue to business across the UK. The Financial C ..read more

The Commercial Court judgment in Project Angel Bidco Ltd (in Administration) v Axis Managing Agency Ltd [2023] EWHC 2649 (Comm) is the latest addition to a small but growing body of English case law regarding the operation of warranty and indemnity insurance (W&I) policies and claims made against such policies (see our articles on previous cases: Finsbury Food v Axis [2023] and Ageas (UK) Ltd v Kwik-Fit [2014]). Warranty and indemnity insurance is a popular M&A deal tool designed to transfer the risk and financial consequences of warranties given in the context of corporate transaction ..read more

In Dassault Aviation SA v Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co Ltd [2024] EWCA Civ 5, the Court of Appeal has overturned a first instance judgment and found that a contractual prohibition on assignment in a sale contract did not prevent the transfer of subrogation rights to an insurer where that transfer arose by operation of law. BACKGROUND The Claimant and a Japanese aerospace company (MBA) entered into an English law contract (the Sale Contract) for the manufacture and delivery of two aircraft (and related supplies and services) to MBA for onward supply to the Japanese Coast Guard. The Sale Contrac ..read more

It is clear from our climate disputes series that the risks and reverberations of climate change are far-reaching, impacting as widely as shareholder claims, parent company and supply chain risk, disclosure investigations and greenwashing. Such impacts raise the inevitable question of how companies’ trusted tools to address and mitigate risk can handle such a systemic global shift. This article in our series on climate disputes considers these risks and how an organisation’s insurance programme and policies may respond, as well as how climate change is impacting the way insurers underwrite ris ..read more

Our latest annual assessment of the UK insurance regulatory landscape reflects the huge amount of regulatory change that has occurred over the last 12 months and that is set to continue in 2024. Milestones reached in 2023 included the first deadline for implementing the FCA’s new Consumer Duty and the passing of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023, laying the foundations for the introduction of a new UK Solvency II regime. We also see major developments on the horizon within the ESG and tech spaces, including an increasing focus on operational resilience and the use of critical third p ..read more

In Infinity Reliance Limited v Heath Crawford Limited [2023] EWHC 3022 (Comm), the High Court provides a reminder of the key duties of insurance brokers and summarises the elements that must be proven in a broker negligence claim. The judgment also provides a useful example of how a claim of contributory negligence may operate to reduce the amount recoverable by a claimant insured. BACKGROUND The Claimant Insured was an online retailer selling personalised gifts for infants and children. It leased a warehouse owned and operated by a third party, which it used to both store and personalise the ..read more

The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by the University of Exeter (the insured) against a High Court ruling in March 2023 regarding a denied insurance claim for damage caused by the detonation of a WW2 bomb: The University of Exeter v Allianz Insurance PLC [2023] EWCA Civ 1484. The Court of Appeal agreed with the High Court’s findings at first instance that the proximate cause of damage to the insured’s buildings was the dropping of the bomb itself rather than the controlled detonation in 2021. The resulting loss was therefore excluded by the war exclusion clause (the Exclusion ..read more