Chubb Sells Off Its Stake In British Insurer

NU Online News Service, April 9, 4 :15 p.m. EDT?The Chubb Corporation has sold off its stake in Hiscox, a Lloyd's of London company, for some 89 million British pounds (U.S. $164 million.)[@@]

Chubb told National Underwriter it would not comment on the sale, but Hiscox explained in a statement that the Warren, N.J.-based Chubb had sold all of its 54.5 million Hiscox shares?which represent an 18.7 percent holding in the British insurer?at 165 pence per piece.

Robert Hiscox, chairman of Hiscox, stated, "We are pleased?This removes an overhang from our register and will improve liquidity."

Chubb's sale of its Hiscox holding brings to a conclusion what has been a sometimes rocky relationship between the two insurers.

Chubb had a 28 percent stake in Hiscox before launching a takeover bid in 2001, but the British insurer gave a cold shoulder to the bid, citing an inability to reach agreement on Chubb's offer. Chubb's 28 percent stake was then subsequently diluted in September 2002 when Chubb decided not to take part in a 110.5 million- pound rights issue by Hiscox.

Chubb is one of the largest directors-and-officers liability insurers and is a major insurer of high-value homes and valuables. For full-year 2003, Chubb's net income came in at $808.8 million, compared with net profit of $222.9 million reported in 2002, when the company took a $741 million pretax charge for asbestos and environmental loss reserves.

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Chubb Sells Off Its Stake In British Insurer

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