NEW YORK/LONDON, July 11 (Reuters) - One of the world's top insurers is mulling offloading its property reinsurance business in a bid to cut its exposure to natural disasters like hurricanes, according to three people familiar with the matter.
Prices for U.S. property catastrophe reinsurance rose by as much as 50% at a key July 1 renewal date, broker Gallagher Re said in a recent report.
AXA has been trying to reduce the exposure of its AXA XL property and casualty (P&C) division - which houses XL Re - in an effort to make earnings more predictable.
This has caused the reinsurance business to shrink, with revenues dropping by nearly a third last year to $3.2 billion, according to AXA's 2022 accounts.
In May, American International Group (AIG.N) agreed the sale of its reinsurance arm Validus Re for roughly $3 billion, or about 1.4 times the unit's book value.
Persons:
Reinsurers, Hurricane Ian, Gallagher Re, David French, Pablo Mayo, Amy, Jo Crowley, Carolyn Cohn, Echo Wang, Silvia Aloisi, John O'Donnell, Conor Humphries
Organizations:
AXA SA, XL, Covea, AXA, AXA XL, American International, Fidelis Insurance Holdings, Reuters, Hamilton Insurance, Pablo Mayo Cerqueiro, Thomson
Locations:
Bermuda, New York, London, Paris