Equitas: Berkshire Reinsurance Deal Now Set

Equitas, the London-based runoff entity for Lloyd’s, announced it has completed its reinsurance transaction with the Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary National Indemnity Corp.

As a result, National Indemnity now reinsures all of Equitas’ liabilities and provides a further $5.7 billion of reinsurance cover to Equitas.

The current management of Equitas will remain in place to conduct the runoff operations, according to the announcement.

Both the U.K. Financial Services Authority and the New York Dept. of Insurance approved the transaction.

Equitas Chairman Hugh Stevenson said the deal should reassure Reinsured Names that the prospect of failure of Equitas is now “extremely remote.”

Equitas was formed to reinsure and run off the 1992 and prior years’ non-life liabilities of the so-called Names, or underwriters, at Lloyd’s- much of it related to asbestos injury claims. It actively manages the non-life liabilities arising from policies written by Lloyd’s syndicates in 1992 and prior years.