Daily briefing: Friday - Quinn's losses make for long-tail pain

Another day, another negative Quinn story. No surprise there.

Quinn Insurance has made an operating loss of €644m (£560m) for the full year of 2009, forcing the former parent company to make a €852m pre-tax loss.

Let’s not go over this whole fiasco once again, but instead look to what it means for the future.

The key point with these losses is that it looks like now, more than ever, the administrators for Quinn will have to tap the Irish Compensation Fund to foot the bill for the insurer’s long-tail liabilities.

That makes you think about solicitors’ professional indemnity, which has a six-year tail. Will those solicitors’ claims get paid on time?

Nobody knows how long the process will take, as the administrators will have to apply to the Irish High Court for funding. Once approval is given, those funds will need to be banked and processed.

In other words, yet more woes for the solicitors’ professional indemnity market.

First to market

Talking of solicitors' PI, one of the players in that market, PYV Ltd, has just had a clutch of directors leave for Howden.

Howden is part of the Hyperion Group, which is aiming to float this time next year. These additions to the team will help to bolster Hyperion before the listing.

But the big question about Hyperion is this: is it big enough for a listing and successful subsequent trading?

This is important for the rest of the market, because investors will use it as a barometer when the other insures and brokers come to flotation.

Hyperion’s IPO is not just a big deal for the company, but for the whole insurance industry. You can guarantee Insurance Times will be watching closely.

Saxon East is assistant editor, news.