Novae moves liabilities

Novae has received consent to the transfer of insurance liabilities from Novae Insurance Company Limited ("NICL") to the Group's Lloyd's Syndicate 2007.

An order was made by the High Court on 21 September 2010 and by the Royal Court of Jersey on 24 September 2010.

The surplus capital held by NICL will be available for underwriting elsewhere in the group or for return to shareholders. Proposals for the return of any surplus capital to shareholders will be published in early December 2010, following the Lloyd's coming-into-line date of 29 November.

Chief executive, Matthew Fosh, said: "We announced our intention to take these steps at the end of last year. Such a transfer into Lloyd's has not previously been done and it is pleasing to have completed the process. Having unlocked this capital, we are now significantly closer to delivering the improvements to our return on equity set out in our December 2009 announcement."