ITEM 1. BUSINESS
As used in this report, references to “we,” “us,” “our” or the “Company” refer to the consolidated operations of AXIS Capital Holdings Limited (“AXIS Capital”) and its direct and indirect subsidiaries and branches, including AXIS Specialty Limited (“AXIS Specialty Bermuda”), AXIS Specialty Limited (Singapore Branch), AXIS Specialty Europe Limited (“AXIS Specialty Europe”), AXIS Specialty London, AXIS Specialty Australia, AXIS Specialty Insurance Company (“AXIS Specialty U.S.”), AXIS Re Limited (“AXIS Re Ltd.”), AXIS Reinsurance Company (“AXIS Re U.S.”), AXIS Reinsurance Company (Canadian Branch), AXIS Surplus Insurance Company (“AXIS Surplus”), AXIS Insurance Company (“AXIS Insurance Co.”) and AXIS Re Europe, unless the context suggests otherwise. Tabular dollars are in thousands. Amounts in tables may not reconcile due to rounding differences.
GENERAL
AXIS Capital is the Bermuda-based holding company for the AXIS Group of Companies. AXIS Capital was incorporated on December 9, 2002. AXIS Specialty Bermuda commenced operations on November 20, 2001. AXIS Specialty Bermuda and its subsidiaries became wholly owned subsidiaries of AXIS Capital pursuant to an exchange offer consummated on December 31, 2002. Through our various operating subsidiaries and branches, we provide a broad range of insurance and reinsurance products to insureds and reinsureds worldwide operations with primary locations in Bermuda, the United States and Europe. Our business consists of two distinct global underwriting platforms, AXIS Insurance and AXIS Re.
During 2007, we purchased the assets of the Media Professional Division (“Media Pro”) of MPI Insurance Agency, Inc., an Aon Group, Inc. subsidiary. Media Pro was a full-service managing general underwriter with operations in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. We were the exclusive carrier for several of Media Pro’s programs for the prior two years, and this purchase gave us the renewal rights to their broader professional lines portfolio.
During 2008, as part of our long-term strategy of global expansion, we established new underwriting branches in Singapore, Australia and Canada.
In January 2009, we purchased Dexta Corporation Pty Ltd (“Dexta”), an underwriting agency in Australia. Since 2005, we have been providing professional indemnity, directors and officers liability and information technology liability insurance coverages as a direct offshore foreign insurer in Australia through Dexta. Effective January 1, 2009, the insurance coverages previously underwritten through Dexta are underwritten directly by AXIS Specialty Australia.
OUR BUSINESS STRATEGY
Our long-term business strategy focuses on utilizing our management’s extensive expertise, experience and long-standing market relationships to identify and underwrite attractively priced risks while delivering insurance and reinsurance solutions to our customers. Our underwriters worldwide are focused on constructing a portfolio of risks that effectively utilizes our capital while optimizing the risk-reward characteristics of the portfolio. We exercise disciplined underwriting practices and manage a diverse book of business while seeking to maximize our profitability and generate superior returns on equity. To afford ourselves ample opportunity to construct a portfolio diversified by product and geography that meets our profitability and return objectives, we have implemented organic growth strategies in key markets worldwide.
The markets in which we operate have historically been cyclical. During periods of excess underwriting capacity, as defined by availability of capital, competition can result in lower pricing and less favorable policy terms and conditions for insurers and reinsurers. During periods of reduced underwriting capacity, pricing and policy terms and conditions are generally more favorable for insurers and reinsurers. Historically, underwriting capacity has been impacted by several factors, including industry losses, catastrophes, changes in legal and regulatory guidelines, investment results and the ratings and financial strength of competitors.
Our near-term strategies conform to our long-term objectives but also reflect changes and opportunities within the global market place. The following is an overview of the insurance and reinsurance market since our first full year of operations in 2002, together with a discussion as to how we have evolved during this period. The following table shows gross premiums written in each of our segments over the last five years:
We were established in late 2001 to take advantage of the significant imbalance that had been created between the demand for insurance and reinsurance and the supply of capacity from adequately capitalized insurers and reinsurers. Pricing and deductibles were increasing dramatically and policy terms and coverages tightening across many specialist lines of business. In a short period of time following our formation, we were able to assemble a diverse portfolio of specialist insurance risks. We also established a property reinsurance portfolio largely comprising worldwide catastrophe exposure. Since our inception, we have focused our efforts on identifying and recruiting talented specialist underwriters and diligently building our infrastructure to access and analyze risks for our global portfolio and to deliver service of the highest quality to our clients.
During 2003, we were able to further diversify our global business by adding select underwriting teams and infrastructure in the U.S. and in Europe. Specifically, we established a meaningful presence in the wholesale insurance market in the U.S., which allowed us to quickly take advantage of favorable market conditions. We also entered the professional lines insurance business through a renewal rights transaction and simultaneous recruitment of an underwriting team from Kemper. The shortage of capacity for U.S. professional lines reinsurance business served as an opportunity for further diversification of our global treaty reinsurance business and establishment of a local presence in the U.S. reinsurance marketplace. By the end of 2003, we had also established a local presence in the Continental European reinsurance marketplace, allowing us to diversify into other traditional European treaty reinsurance business including motor liability and credit and bond. The establishment and growth of our U.S. and European reinsurance underwriting operations contributed to the significant premium growth in our reinsurance segment during 2004 and 2005.
Since these early years of substantial growth, we have continued to establish our position in the global insurance and reinsurance marketplace. This has been against the backdrop of a softening market cycle throughout many of our property and casualty lines of business, with increased competition, surplus underwriting capacity and deteriorating rates, terms and conditions all having an impact on our ability to write business. Despite this, our strong diversity by product and geography, has allowed us to effectively reallocate underwriting capacity around our business operations as we see market conditions change and business opportunities arise, allowing us to maintain a relatively stable level of gross premiums written during this period.
Within our reinsurance segment, the deteriorating market conditions have generally been less severe than those experienced in a number of areas in the primary insurance market, although our opportunity for growth has also been restricted by a trend of greater risk and retention appetite in the industry. In terms of premium growth, we have offset the impact of these changes through greater market penetration in the U.S. and European reinsurance markets, particularly in 2006 and 2007, as well as specific growth opportunities, such as our engineering business, which we expanded in 2008.
Within our insurance segment, market conditions have been increasingly competitive for several years, with surplus capacity and price deterioration prevalent across most of our portfolio. While we have therefore reduced our participation in several areas, we have focused on risks with a better risk-reward profile. In the last few years we have continued to expand our professional lines business, with the purchase of the Media Pro business in 2007 further strengthening our diversification strategy in this line. In 2008, we also identified new business opportunities in our financial institutions business arising from the impact of the financial market crisis. In recent years we have also added underwriting expertise
to our credit and political risk team and established a branch in Singapore, which have provided us with access to a broader range of distribution channels. This has allowed us to access more products which are not as closely correlated to the property and casualty cycle, in particular emerging market sovereign and corporate credit. Our ability and appetite to write this business was negatively impacted in the latter part of 2008 by the effects of the global financial crisis. In early 2009, we established a new Accident and Health line of business in our insurance segment, which will provide corporate personal accident and business travel coverage as well as specialty and catastrophe health and ancillary property and casualty coverage. We intend to initially grow this business in the U.S. market and expand into the European, Canadian, Australian and Asian markets over time.
During 2007, we created a new Ceded Reinsurance Unit to coordinate our purchasing activities to improve efficiency and consistency and take advantage of new opportunities in the marketplace. During 2007 and 2008, we have been able to effectively expand our reinsurance coverage at attractive costs, particularly within our professional lines, casualty and property insurance lines of business. This strategy has allowed us to reduce our overall net retentions relative to previous years and therefore deliver more value through an improvement in our risk/reward position.
Our use of technology allows us to maintain a low-cost infrastructure and efficient underwriting operations. In addition, we believe our technological capabilities provide us with competitive advantages as we seek to improve our relationships with our customers, provide enhanced levels of customer service and optimize our internal decision making process. During 2008, we continued to enhance our IT infrastructure, further developing our proprietary systems and other technologies, enabling us to increase our processing and underwriting capabilities. In addition, we further engaged offshore third party vendors to operate a portion of our technology infrastructure, including network operations, data center processing, data storage and application maintenance, and conversion and utility programming efforts to focus core resources exclusively on solutions which are of greater strategic significance.
During 2008, we continued to strengthen our enterprise risk management framework, creating a separate Risk Management department, led by our new Chief Risk Officer. This reflects the enhanced role for risk management in today’s complex environment, and the strategic importance we place on risk management.
SEGMENT INFORMATION
Our underwriting operations are organized around our two global underwriting platforms, AXIS Insurance and AXIS Re and therefore we have determined that we have two reportable segments, insurance and reinsurance. Except for goodwill and intangible assets, we do not allocate our assets by segment as we evaluate the underwriting results of each segment separately from the results of our investment portfolio. Financial data relating to our segments is included in Item 8, Note 3 “Segment Information” to our Consolidated Financial Statements and in Item 7, Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.
Insurance Segment
Lines of Business and Distribution
Our insurance segment offers specialty insurance products to a variety of niche markets on a worldwide basis. The following are the lines of business in our insurance segment:
•
Property: provides physical damage and business interruption coverage primarily for industrial and commercial properties and physical damage, business interruption and liability coverage for onshore energy properties and operations. This line of business consists of both primary and excess risks, some of which are catastrophe-exposed.
•
Marine: provides coverage for hull, liability, cargo and specie and recreational marine risks. These risks include property damage or physical loss to ships, pollution damage caused by vessels on a sudden and accidental basis, protection for general cargo and the contents of armored cars, vaults, exhibitions and museums, and specific war related risks. This line of business also provides physical damage, business interruption and liability coverage for offshore energy property and operations.
•
Terrorism: provides coverage for physical damage and business interruption of an insured following an act of terrorism.
•
Aviation: provides hull and liability and specific war coverage for passenger and cargo airlines and privately owned aircraft as well as select aviation product liability coverage.
•
Credit and political risk: provides credit insurance, sovereign default insurance coverage and traditional political risk insurance coverage. The credit insurance coverage is primarily for lenders seeking to mitigate the risk of non-payment from their borrowers in emerging markets. For the credit insurance contracts, it is necessary for the buyer of the insurance (most often a bank) to hold an insured asset (most often an underlying loan) in order to claim compensation under the insurance contract. The traditional political risk coverage provides protection against sovereign actions that result in the impairment of cross-border investments for banks and major corporations (known as “CEND” coverages).
•
Professional lines: provides coverage for directors’ and officers’ liability, errors and omissions liability, employment practices liability, media, cyber, technology and miscellaneous professional liability coverage.
•
Liability: primarily targets general liability and umbrella and excess liability in the U.S. excess and surplus lines markets. Target classes include mercantile, manufacturing and building/premises, with particular emphasis on commercial and consumer products, commercial construction and miscellaneous general liability.
•
Other: primarily consists of employee medical coverage for self-insured, small and medium sized employers, for losses in excess of a given retention.
We produce our business primarily through wholesale and retail brokers worldwide. Some of our insurance products are also distributed through managing general agents and underwriters. In the U.S., we have the ability to write business on an admitted basis using forms and rates as filed with state insurance regulators and on a non-admitted basis, or surplus lines basis, with flexibility in forms and rates as these are not filed with state regulators. Having non-admitted carriers in our U.S. group of companies provides the pricing flexibility needed to write non-standard coverage. Substantially all of our insurance business is written subject to aggregate limits, in addition to event limits.
Gross premiums written by broker, shown individually where premiums are 10% or more of the total in any of the last three years, were as follows:
(1) To facilitate period to period comparisons, we have made certain reclassification to prior year balances to conform to our current presentation, which reflects broker consolidations during 2008.
Competitive Environment
We operate in highly competitive markets. In our insurance segment, where competition is focused on price as well as availability, service and other considerations, we compete with U.S. based companies with global insurance operations, as well as non U.S. global carriers and indigenous companies in regional and local markets. We believe we achieve a competitive advantage through our strong capital position and the strategic and operational linking of our practices, which allows us to design our insurance programs on a global basis in alignment with the global needs of many of our clients.
Reinsurance Segment
Lines of Business and Distribution
Our reinsurance segment operates through offices based in Bermuda, Singapore, the U.S. and Europe. The majority of our business is written on an excess of loss basis, whereby we typically provide an indemnification to the cedant for a portion of losses both individually and in the aggregate, on policies in excess of a specified individual or aggregate loss deductible. For business written on a proportional basis, we receive an agreed percentage of the premium and are liable for the same percentage of incurred losses. Reinsurance may be written on a portfolio/treaty basis or on an individual risk/facultative basis. The majority of our business is written on a treaty basis and primarily underwritten through brokers worldwide. Substantially all our reinsurance business written is subject to aggregate limits in addition to event limits.
Our reinsurance segment provides property and casualty reinsurance to insurance companies on a worldwide basis. The following are the lines of business in our reinsurance segment:
•
Catastrophe: provides protection for most catastrophic losses that are covered in the underlying insurance policies written by our cedants. The exposure in the underlying policies is principally property exposure but also covers other exposures including workers compensation, personal accident and life. The principal perils in this portfolio are hurricane and windstorm, earthquake, flood, tornado, hail and fire. In some instances, terrorism may be a covered peril or the only peril. We underwrite catastrophe reinsurance principally on an excess of loss basis.
•
Property: includes reinsurance written on both a proportional and a per risk excess of loss basis and covers underlying personal lines and commercial property exposures.
•
Professional Liability: covers directors’ and officers’ liability, employment practices liability, medical malpractice and miscellaneous errors and omissions insurance risks.
•
Credit and Bond: consists principally of reinsurance of trade credit insurance products and includes both proportional and excess of loss structures. The underlying insurance indemnifies sellers of goods and services in the event of a payment default by the buyer of those goods and services. Also included in this line of business is coverage for losses arising from a broad array of surety bonds issued by bond insurers principally to satisfy regulatory demands in a variety of jurisdictions around the world, but predominantly in Europe.
•
Motor: provides coverage to cedants for motor liability losses arising out of any one occurrence. The occurrence can involve one or many claimants where the ceding insurer aggregates the claims from the occurrence.
•
Liability: provides coverage to insurers of standard casualty lines, including auto liability, general liability, personal and commercial umbrella and workers’ compensation.
•
Engineering: provides coverage for all types of civil construction risks and risks associated with erection, testing and commissioning of machinery and plants during the construction stage. This line of business also includes coverage for losses arising from operational failures of machinery, plant and equipment and electronic equipment as well as business interruption.
•
Other: includes aviation, marine, personal accident and crop reinsurance.
Gross premiums written by broker, shown individually where premiums are 10% or more of the total in any of the last three years, were as follows:
(1) To facilitate period to period comparisons, we have made certain reclassification to prior year balances to conform to our current presentation, which reflects broker consolidations during 2008.
Competitive Environment
In our reinsurance segment where competition tends to be focused on availability, service, financial strength and increasingly price, we compete with major U.S. and non-U.S. reinsurers as well as reinsurance departments of numerous multi-line insurance organizations. We believe we achieve a competitive advantage through our strong capital position as well as our technical expertise that allows us to respond quickly to customer needs and provide quality and innovative underwriting solutions. In addition, our customers highly value our exemplary service, strong capitalization and financial strength ratings.
REINSURANCE PROTECTION
Our Ceded Reinsurance Unit purchases treaty and facultative reinsurance to reduce our exposure to large losses or a series of large losses. All treaty reinsurance purchases and our facultative reinsurance strategies are pre-approved by our Reinsurance Purchasing Group, which consists of senior management. Facultative reinsurance provides for all or a portion of the insurance provided by a single policy and each policy reinsured is individually negotiated. Treaty reinsurance provides for a specified type or category of risks. Our reinsurance agreements may be on an excess of loss or quota share basis. Excess of loss covers provide a contractually set amount of cover after an excess point has been reached. This excess point can be based on the size of an industry loss or a fixed monetary amount. These covers can be purchased on a package policy basis, which provide cover for a number of lines of business within one contract. Quota share covers provide a proportional amount of coverage from the first dollar of loss. All of these reinsurance covers provide for recovery of a portion of losses and loss expenses from reinsurers. We remain liable to the extent that reinsurers do not meet their obligations under these agreements.
RESERVE FOR UNPAID LOSSES AND LOSS EXPENSES
We establish reserves for losses and loss expenses that arise from our insurance and reinsurance products. These reserves are balance sheet liabilities representing estimates of future amounts required to pay losses and loss expenses for insured or reinsured claims that have occurred at or before the balance sheet date, whether already known or not yet reported. Our loss reserves are established based upon our estimate of the total cost of claims that were reported to us but not yet paid (“case reserves”), and the anticipated cost of claims incurred but not yet reported to us (“IBNR”).
The table below shows the development of our loss reserves since inception. To illustrate an understanding of the information in this table, following is an example using reserves established at December 31, 2005.
The top lines of the table show for successive balance sheet dates the gross and net unpaid losses and loss expenses recorded at or prior to each balance sheet date. It can be seen that at December 31, 2005, a reserve of $3,225 million, net of reinsurance had been established.
The lower part of the table presents the net amounts paid as of periods subsequent to the balance sheet date. Hence in the year ended December 31, 2006 net payments of $899 million were made from the December 31, 2005, reserve balance. By the end of 2008, cumulative net payments against the December 31, 2005 net reserves were $1,552 million.
The upper part of the table shows the revised estimate of the net liabilities originally recorded as of the end of subsequent years. With the benefit of actual loss emergence over the intervening period, the net liabilities incurred as of December 31, 2005, are now estimated to be $2,706 million, rather than the original estimate of $3,225 million. Of the cumulative redundancy of $520 million recognized in the three years since December 31, 2005, $217 million was identified and recorded in 2006, $115 million in 2007 and $188 million in 2008.
Importantly, the cumulative deficiency or redundancy for different balance sheet dates is not independent and therefore, should not be added together. In 2008, we have revised our estimate of the December 31, 2005, liabilities from $2,894 million to $2,706 million. This favorable development of $188 million will also be included in each column to the right of December 31, 2005, to recognize that there was also reserve redundancy in the reserves established at December 31, 2006 and December 31, 2007.
The table above also shows the impact of foreign exchange rate movements. Movements in foreign exchange rates between periods result in variations in our net loss reserves, as the U.S. dollar, our reporting currency, strengthens or weakens against underlying currencies. For example, for the year ended December 31, 2008, the strengthening of the U.S. dollar, primarily against Euro and Sterling, resulted in a $133 million reduction in our net loss reserves, established prior to, or during, 2008. We generally hold investments in the same currency as our net reserves, with the intent of matching the impact of foreign exchange movements on our assets and liabilities.
Conditions and trends that affected the development of liabilities in the past may not necessarily occur in the future. Accordingly, it may be inappropriate to anticipate future redundancies or deficiencies based on historical experience. The key issues and considerations involved in establishing our estimate of our loss reserves is discussed in more detail within the “Critical Accounting Estimates - Reserve for Losses and Loss Expenses” section of Item 7. For additional information regarding the key underlying movements in our loss reserves in the last three years, refer to the “Group Underwriting Results - Loss Ratio” section of Item 7.
CASH AND INVESTMENTS
We follow an investment strategy designed to optimize book value growth and generate appropriate risk adjusted returns while providing sufficient liquidity to meet our claims and other obligations. As such, our funds are primarily invested in cash and cash equivalents and investment-grade fixed maturity investments as measured by the major rating agencies. As part of our diversification program, we also allocate funds to other investments classes. These investments, which primarily consist of hedge funds and credit funds, are invested to further diversify our portfolio.
Our funds are invested by external investment managers in accordance with investment guidelines established by us. These guidelines specify minimum criteria on the overall credit quality and liquidity characteristics of our portfolio and include limitations on the size of holdings as well as restrictions on types of securities which may be purchased. Our cash and cash equivalents are invested directly by our investment managers or invested in high quality money market funds under the direction of our treasury department.
Our investment team determines target asset allocations which are derived from asset and liability modeling that measures correlated histories of returns and volatility of returns. Permitted investment classes are further refined for each subsidiary through analysis of our operating environment, including expected volatility of cash flows, overall capital position, regulatory, and rating agency considerations. The Finance Committee of the Board of Directors approves our overall group asset allocation targets and reviews our investment guidelines to ensure that it is consistent with our overall goals, strategies, and objectives. We also have an Investment Committee, comprising senior management, which oversees the implementation of our investment strategy.
The following table summarizes the composition of our cash and investment at December 31, 2008 and 2007:
For additional information regarding the investment portfolio refer to the “Cash and Investments” section of Item 7.
ENTERPRISE RISK MANAGEMENT
OVERVIEW
Enterprise Risk Management (“ERM”)
ERM is our group-wide framework for identifying, managing, reporting and responding to risks that could affect the achievement of our strategic and financial objectives. The objectives of our ERM are to:
•
Protect our capital base by ensuring that capital is deployed in the most efficient way and that risks are not taken beyond our risk-taking appetite;
•
Enhance value creation and contribute to an optimal risk-return profile; and
•
Support our group-wide decision making process by providing reliable and timely risk information.
Our ERM efforts build upon our foundation of internal control. ERM expands the internal control objectives of effective and efficient operations, reliable financial reporting and compliance with laws and regulations, to fostering, leading and supporting an integrated, risk-based culture that focuses on value creation and preservation. However, internal controls and ERM can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the control objectives will be met. As a result, the possibility of material financial loss remains in spite of our enterprise risk management efforts. An investor should carefully consider the risks and all information set forth in this report, including the discussions included in “Item 1A
ITEM 1A: RISK FACTORS
You should carefully consider the following risks and all of the other information set forth in this report, including our consolidated financial statements and the notes thereto:
The continuation of the recent financial crisis could materially and adversely affect our business, our liquidity and financial condition.
Worldwide financial markets have recently experienced unprecedented volatility and disruption including, among other things, dislocation in the mortgage and asset-backed securities markets, deleveraging and decreased liquidity generally, widening of credit spreads, bankruptcies and government intervention in a number of large financial institutions. These events have resulted in extraordinary responses by governments worldwide, including the enactment of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 in the U.S. These conditions may potentially affect (among other aspects of our business) the demand for and claims made under our products, the ability of customers, counterparties and others to establish or maintain their relationships with us, our ability to access and efficiently use internal and external capital resources and our investment performance. In the event that these conditions persist and result in a prolonged economic downturn or recession, our results of operations, our financial condition and/or liquidity, and competitor landscape could be materially and adversely affected.
Our results of operations and financial condition could be materially adversely affected by the occurrence of natural and man-made disasters.
We have substantial exposure to unexpected losses resulting from natural disasters, man-made catastrophes and other catastrophic events. Catastrophes can be caused by various events, including hurricanes, earthquakes, hailstorms, explosions, severe winter weather, fires, and other natural or man-made disasters. The incidence and severity of
catastrophes are inherently unpredictable and our losses from catastrophes could be substantial. As an example of the impact of catastrophe events, in 2008 we incurred net losses on Hurricanes Ike and Gustav of $408 million, which materially reduced our net income for the year. Increases in the values and concentrations of insured property may also increase the severity of these occurrences in the future. Although we attempt to manage our exposure to such events through the use of underwriting controls and the purchase of third-party reinsurance, the actual nature of such events when they occur could be more frequent or severe than contemplated in our pricing and risk management expectations. As a result, the occurrence of one or more catastrophe events could have a material effect on our results of operations, financial condition and/or liquidity.
We could face unanticipated losses from war, terrorism and political unrest, and these or other unanticipated losses could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.
We have substantial exposure to unexpected losses resulting from war, acts of terrorism and political instability. In certain instances, we specifically insure and reinsure risks resulting from acts of terrorism. Even in cases where we attempt to exclude losses from terrorism and certain other similar risks from some coverages written by us, there can be no assurance that a court or arbitration panel will interpret policy language or otherwise issue a ruling favorable to us. Accordingly, we can offer no assurance that our reserves will be adequate to cover losses should they materialize.
We have limited terrorism coverage in our own reinsurance program for our exposure to catastrophe losses related to acts of terrorism. Furthermore, although the Terrorism Risk Insurance Extension Act of 2005 (“TRIEA”) provides benefits in the event of certain acts of terrorism, those benefits are subject to a deductible and to other limitations. Under TRIEA, once our losses attributable to certain acts of terrorism exceed 20% of our direct commercial property and casualty insurance premiums for the preceding calendar year, the federal government will reimburse us for 85% of such losses in excess of this deductible. Notably, TRIEA does not provide coverage for reinsurance losses or for losses involving nuclear, biological, chemical or radiological events. Given the unpredictable frequency and severity of terrorism losses, as well as the limited terrorism coverage in our own reinsurance program, future losses from acts of terrorism, particularly those in our reinsurance segment or those involving nuclear, biological, chemical or radiological events, could materially and adversely affect our results of operations, financial condition and/or liquidity in future periods. TRIEA may not be extended beyond 2014.
Our credit and political risk insurance line of business protects insureds with interests in foreign jurisdictions in the event governmental action prevents them from exercising their contractual rights and may also protect their assets against physical damage perils. This may include risks arising from expropriation, forced abandonment, license cancellation, trade embargo, contract frustration, non-payment, war on land or political violence (including terrorism, revolution, insurrection and civil unrest). Political risk insurance is typically provided to financial institutions, equity investors, exporters, importers, export credit agencies and multilateral agencies in an array of industries, in connection with investments and contracts in both emerging markets and developed countries.
Our credit and political risk line of business also protects insureds in foreign jurisdictions against non-payment coverage on specific loan obligations as a result of commercial as well as political risk events. The vast majority of the credit insurance provided is for single-named illiquid risks, primarily in the form of secured bank loans that can be individually analyzed and underwritten. We avoid insurance for structured finance products defined by pools of risks and insurance for synthetic products that would expose us to mark-to-market losses. We also avoid terms in our credit insurance contracts which introduce liquidity risk, most notably, in the form of a collateralization requirement upon a ratings downgrade. Although we also attempt to manage our exposure, by among other things, setting credit limits by country, region, industry and individual counterparty and regularly reviewing our aggregate exposures, the occurrence of one or more large losses on our credit insurance portfolio could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial condition and/or liquidity.
If actual claims exceed our loss reserves, our financial results could be adversely affected.
While we believe that our loss reserves at December 31, 2008 are adequate, new information, events or circumstances, unknown at the original valuation date, may lead to future developments in our ultimate losses significantly greater or less
than the reserves currently provided. The actual final cost of settling both claims outstanding at December 31, 2008 and claims expected to arise from unexpired period of risk is uncertain. There are many other factors that would cause our reserves to increase or decrease, which include, but are not limited to, changes in claim severity, changes in the expected level of reported claims, judicial action changing the scope and/or liability of coverage, changes in the regulatory, social and economic environment and unexpected changes in loss inflation.
The uncertainty in our reserve estimate is particularly pronounced for a company like ours that has a limited operating history and therefore relies more upon industry benchmarks. To reduce some of the uncertainty, management performs an analysis of additional factors to be considered when establishing our IBNR, intended to enhance our best estimate beyond quantitative techniques. At December 31, 2008, we recorded additional IBNR for uncertainties relating to the timing of the emergence of claims. Although time lags are incorporated within the actuarial methods discussed above, these rely on industry experience which may not be indicative of our business. For example, the low frequency, high severity nature of much of our business, together with the vast and diverse expanse of our worldwide exposures, may limit the usefulness of claims experience of other insurers and reinsurers for similar types of business.
Changes to our previous estimate of prior year loss reserves can impact the reported calendar year underwriting results by worsening our reported results if reserves prove to be deficient or improving our reported results if reserves prove to be redundant. If our net income is insufficient to absorb a required increase in our loss reserves, we would incur an operating loss and could incur a reduction of our capital.
The failure of any of the loss limitation methods we employ could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations or financial condition.
We seek to mitigate our loss exposure by writing a number of our insurance and reinsurance contracts on an excess of loss basis. Excess of loss insurance and reinsurance indemnifies the insured against losses in excess of a specified amount. In addition, we limit the program size for each client on our insurance business and purchase reinsurance for many of our lines of business. In the case of quota share reinsurance treaties, we seek per occurrence limitations or loss and loss expense ratio caps to limit the impact of losses from any one event. In quota share reinsurance, the reinsurer shares a proportional part of the premiums and losses of the reinsured. We cannot be sure that any of these loss limitation methods will be effective and mitigate our loss exposure. We also seek to limit our loss exposure by geographic diversification. Geographic zone limitations involve significant underwriting judgments, including the determination of the area of the zones and the inclusion of a particular policy within a particular zone’s limits. Various provisions of our policies, such as limitations or exclusions from coverage or choice of forum negotiated to limit our risks may not be enforceable in the manner we intend. As a result of these risks, one or more catastrophic or other events could result in claims that substantially exceed our expectations, which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations or financial condition.
The risk associated with reinsurance underwriting could adversely affect us.
In our reinsurance business, we do not always separately evaluate each of the individual risks assumed under reinsurance treaties. This is common among reinsurers. Therefore, we are largely dependent on the original underwriting decisions made by insurers that reinsure their liabilities, or ceding companies. We are subject to the risk that the ceding companies may not have adequately evaluated the risks to be reinsured and that the premiums ceded may not adequately compensate us for the risks we assume.
We could be materially adversely affected to the extent that managing general agents, general agents and other producers in our program business exceed their underwriting authorities or otherwise breach obligations owed to us.
In program business conducted by our insurance segment, following our underwriting, financial, claims and information technology due diligence reviews, we authorize managing general agents, general agents and other producers to write business on our behalf within underwriting authorities prescribed by us. Once a program incepts, we must rely on the underwriting controls of these agents to write business within the underwriting authorities provided by us. Although we
monitor our programs on an ongoing basis, our monitoring efforts may not be adequate or our agents may exceed their underwriting authorities or otherwise breach obligations owed to us. To the extent that our agents exceed their authorities or otherwise breach obligations owed to us in the future, our results of operations and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.
If we choose to purchase reinsurance, we may be unable to do so, and if we successfully purchase reinsurance, we may be unable to collect.
We purchase reinsurance for our insurance and reinsurance operations in order to mitigate the volatility of losses upon our financial results. A reinsurer’s insolvency, or inability or refusal to make payments under the terms of its reinsurance agreement with us, could have a material adverse effect on our business because we remain liable to the insured. From time to time, market conditions have limited, and in some cases have prevented, insurers and reinsurers from obtaining the types and amounts of reinsurance that they consider adequate for their business needs.
There is no guarantee that our desired amounts of reinsurance or retrocessional reinsurance will be available in the marketplace in the future. In addition to capacity risk, the remaining capacity may not be on terms we deem appropriate or acceptable or with companies with whom we want to do business. Finally, we face counterparty risk whenever we purchase reinsurance or retrocessional reinsurance. Many re/insurance companies have been negatively impacted by deteriorating financial and economic conditions, including unprecedented financial market disruption. A number of these companies, including some of those with which we conduct business, have been downgraded and/or have been placed on negative outlook by various rating agencies. Consequently, the insolvency, inability or unwillingness of any of our present or future reinsurers to make timely payments to us under the terms of our reinsurance or retrocessional agreements could have an adverse effect on us.
If we experience difficulties with technology and/or data security our ability to conduct our business might be negatively impacted.
While technology can streamline many business processes and ultimately reduce the cost of operations, technology initiatives present certain risks. Our business is dependent upon our employees’ and outsourcers’ ability to perform, in an efficient and uninterrupted fashion, necessary business functions, such as processing policies and paying claims. A shutdown of, or inability to, access one or more of our facilities, a power outage, or a failure of one or more of our information technology, telecommunications or other systems could significantly impair our ability to perform such functions on a timely basis. If sustained or repeated, such a business interruption, system failure or service denial could result in a deterioration of our ability to write and process business, provide customer service, pay claims in a timely manner or perform other necessary business functions. Computer viruses, hackers and other external hazards including catastrophic events could expose our data systems to security breaches. These risks could expose us to data loss and damages. As a result, our ability to conduct our business might be adversely affected.
We outsource certain technology and business process functions to third parties and may do so increasingly in the future. If we do not effectively develop and implement our outsourcing strategy, third party providers do not perform as anticipated or we experience technological or other problems with a transition, we may not realize productivity improvements or cost efficiencies and may experience operational difficulties, increased costs and a loss of business. Our outsourcing of certain technology and business process functions to third parties may expose us to enhanced risk related to data security, which could result in monetary and reputational damages. In addition, our ability to receive services from third party providers might be impacted by cultural differences, political instability, unanticipated regulatory requirements or policies. As a result, our ability to conduct our business might be adversely affected.
A decline in our investment performance could reduce our profitability.
The performance of our cash and investments portfolio has a significant impact on our financial results. A failure to successfully execute our investment strategy could have a significant impact on our results of operations or financial condition.
Our investment portfolio is subject to a variety of market risks, including risks relating to general economic conditions, interest rate fluctuations, equity price risk, foreign currency movements, pre-payment or reinvestment risk, and credit risk. Although we attempt to manage market risks through, among other things, stressing diversification and conservation of principal and liquidity in our investment guidelines, it is possible that, in periods of economic weakness or periods of turmoil in capital markets, we may experience significant losses in our portfolio. We experienced such market conditions during 2008 which drove a 67% reduction in our total net investment income and net realized investment gains/losses as compared with 2007.
Our fixed maturities, which represent 77% of our total cash and investments at December 31, 2008, may be adversely impacted by changes in interest rates. Increases in interest rates could cause the fair value of our investment portfolio to decrease, perhaps substantially. Conversely, a decline in interest rates could reduce our investment yield, which would reduce our overall profitability. Interest rates are highly sensitive to many factors, including governmental monetary policies, domestic and international economic and political conditions and other factors beyond our control. Our fixed maturities may also be adversely impacted by fluctuations in credit spreads. A credit spread is the difference between the yield on the fixed maturity security of a particular borrower (or a class of borrowers with a specified credit rating) and the yield of similar maturity U.S. Treasury fixed maturity. As credit spreads widen, the fair value of our fixed maturities falls, and the converse is also true.
Our fixed maturity portfolio also includes exposure to mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities. During 2008, a significant increase in mortgage default rates negatively impacted the value of mortgage backed securities held by foreign and domestic institutions. The defaults also lead to a corresponding increase in foreclosures, which drove down house values, resulting in additional losses in mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities. These market conditions significantly impacted the fair value of these securities during 2008. In the event that these conditions persist, our financial position and/or liquidity could be materially and adversely affected.
As part of our diversification strategy, 5% of our investment portfolio is invested in other investments. These investments consist primarily of hedge funds and credit funds. Return expectations are, as a rule, correlated with risk expectation, i.e. investments with potentially higher returns entail a potentially higher risk of loss. The fact that our other investments can be a risky form of investment was illustrated by losses incurred from this portfolio of $221 million during 2008, which significantly impacted our overall results. Many of our other investments are also subject to restrictions on redemptions and sales which are determined by the governing documents and limit our ability to liquidate these investments in the short term.
During an economic downturn, our investment portfolio could be subject to higher risk. The value of our investment portfolio is subject to the risk that certain investments may default or become impaired due to deterioration in the financial condition of one or more issuers of the securities held in our portfolio, or due to deterioration in the financial condition of an insurer that guarantees an issuer’s payments of such investments. Such defaults and impairments could reduce our net investment income and result in realized investment losses.
Our investment portfolio is also subject to increased valuation uncertainties when investment markets are illiquid. The valuation of investments is more subjective when markets are illiquid, thereby increasing the risk that the estimated fair value (i.e., the carrying amount) of our investment portfolio is not reflective of prices at which actual transactions would occur.
Because of the risks set forth above, the value of our investment portfolio could decrease, we could experience reduced net investment income, and we could incur realized investment losses, which could materially and adversely affect our results of operations, financial condition and/or liquidity.
Given our reliance on external investment managers, we could also be exposed to operational risks, that may include, but are not limited to, a failure to follow our investment guidelines, technological and staffing deficiencies and inadequate disaster recovery plans.
Our operating results may be adversely affected by currency fluctuations.
Our functional currency is the U.S. dollar. However, a portion of our gross premiums are written in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. A portion of our loss reserves and investments are also in non-U.S. currencies. We may, from time to time, experience losses resulting from fluctuations in the values of these non-U.S. currencies, which could adversely affect our operating results. Although we attempt to manage our foreign currency exposure through matching of our major foreign denominated assets and liabilities, as well as through the use of currency derivatives, there is no guarantee that we will successfully mitigate our exposure to foreign exchange losses.
We may require additional capital in the future, which may not be available or may only be available on unfavorable terms.
Our future capital requirements depend on many factors, including our ability to write new business successfully, the frequency and severity of catastrophic events and our ability to establish premium rates and reserves at levels sufficient to cover losses. We may need to raise additional funds through financings. If we are unable to do so, it may curtail our growth and reduce our assets. Any equity or debt financing, if available at all, may be on terms that are not favorable to us. Equity financings could be dilutive to our existing shareholders and could result in the issuance of securities that have rights, preferences and privileges that are senior to those of our other securities. If we cannot obtain adequate capital on favorable terms or at all, our business, operating results and financial condition could be adversely affected.
Our inability to obtain the necessary credit could affect our ability to offer reinsurance in certain markets.
Neither AXIS Specialty Bermuda nor AXIS Re Ltd. is licensed or admitted as an insurer or reinsurer in any jurisdiction other than Bermuda, Ireland and Singapore, respectively. Because the U.S. and some other jurisdictions do not permit insurance companies to take credit on their statutory financial statements for reinsurance obtained from unlicensed or non-admitted insurers unless appropriate security mechanisms are in place, our reinsurance clients in these jurisdictions typically require AXIS Specialty Bermuda and AXIS Re Ltd. to provide letters of credit or other collateral. Our credit facility is used to post letters of credit. However, if our credit facility is not sufficient, or if we are unable to renew our credit facility on commercially affordable terms when it expires on August 25, 2010, or if we are unable to arrange for other types of security on commercially affordable terms, AXIS Specialty Bermuda and AXIS Re Ltd. could be limited in their ability to write business for some of our clients.
A downgrade in our credit ratings by one or more rating agencies could materially and negatively impact our business, financial condition, results of operations and/or liquidity.
As our ability to underwrite business is dependent upon the quality of our claims paying and financial strength ratings as evaluated by independent rating agencies, a downgrade by any of these institutions could cause our competitive position in the insurance and reinsurance industry to suffer and make it more difficult for us to market our products. If we experience a credit rating downgrade in the future, we could incur higher borrowing costs and may have more limited means to access capital. A downgrade could also result in a substantial loss of business for us as ceding companies and brokers that place such business may move to other insurers and reinsurers with higher credit ratings.
Since we depend on a few brokers for a large portion of our revenues, loss of business provided by any one of them could adversely affect us.
We market our insurance and reinsurance worldwide primarily through insurance and reinsurance brokers. MMC (Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc.), including its subsidiary Guy Carpenter & Company, Inc., Aon Corporation and Willis Group Holdings Ltd., provided a total of 58% of our gross premiums written during 2008. These brokers also have, or may in the future acquire, ownership interests in insurance and reinsurance companies that may compete with us. Loss of all or a substantial portion of the business provided by one or more of these brokers could have a material adverse effect on our business.
Our reliance on brokers subjects us to their credit risk.
In accordance with industry practice, we pay amounts owed on claims under our insurance and reinsurance contracts to brokers, and these brokers pay these amounts over to the clients that have purchased insurance or reinsurance from us. Although the law is unsettled and depends upon the facts and circumstances of the particular case, in some jurisdictions, if a broker fails to make such a payment, we might remain liable to the insured or ceding insurer for the deficiency.
Conversely, in certain jurisdictions, when the insured or ceding insurer pays premiums for these policies to brokers for payment over to us, these premiums might be considered to have been paid and the insured or ceding insurer will no longer be liable to us for those amounts, whether or not we have actually received the premiums from the broker. Consequently, we assume a degree of credit risk associated with brokers with whom we transact business. These risks are heightened during financial instability or an economic downturn or recession.
Changes in current accounting practices and future pronouncements may materially impact our reported financial results.
Unanticipated developments in accounting practices may require us to incur considerable additional expenses to comply with such developments, particularly if we are required to prepare information relating to prior periods for comparative purposes or to apply the new requirements retroactively. The impact of changes in current accounting practices and future pronouncements cannot be predicted but may affect the calculation of net income, net equity and other relevant financial statement line items. In particular, recent guidance and ongoing projects put in place by standard setters globally have indicated a possible move away from the current insurance accounting models toward more fair value based models which could introduce significant volatility in the earnings of insurance industry participants.
We could be adversely affected by the loss of one or more key executives or by an inability to attract and retain qualified personnel.
Our success depends on our ability to retain the services of our existing key executives and to attract and retain additional qualified personnel in the future. The loss of the services of any of our key executives or the inability to hire and retain other highly qualified personnel in the future could adversely affect our ability to conduct our business. We do not maintain key man life insurance policies with respect to our employees, except for our Chief Executive Officer and President, John R. Charman. There can be no assurance that we will be successful in identifying, hiring or retaining successors on terms acceptable to us or on any terms.
Under Bermuda law, non-Bermudians, with some limited exceptions, may not engage in any gainful occupation in Bermuda without an appropriate governmental work permit. Work permits may be granted or extended by the Bermuda government only upon showing that, after proper public advertisement in most cases, no Bermudian or spouse of a Bermudian, holder of a permanent resident’s certificate or holder of a working resident’s certificate is available who meets the minimum standard requirements for the advertised position. In 2001, the Bermuda government announced a new immigration policy limiting the duration of work permits to between six and nine years, with specified exemptions for “key” employees. In March 2004, the Bermuda government announced an amendment to the immigration policy which expanded the categories of occupations recognized by the government as “key” and for which businesses are eligible to apply for holders of jobs in those categories to be exempt from the six to nine year term limits. The categories include senior executives (chief executive officers, presidents through vice presidents), managers with global responsibility, senior financial posts (treasurers, chief financial officers through controllers, specialized qualified accountants, quantitative modeling analysts), certain legal professionals (general counsel, specialist attorneys, qualified legal librarians and knowledge managers), senior insurance professionals (senior underwriters, senior claims adjustors), experienced/specialized brokers, actuaries, specialist investment traders/analysts and senior information technology engineers/managers. All executive officers who work in our Bermuda office that require work permits have obtained them.
Competition in the insurance industry could reduce our risk margins
The insurance and reinsurance industry is highly competitive. We compete on an international and regional basis with major U.S., Bermuda, European and other international insurers and reinsurers and with Lloyds’ underwriting syndicates,
some of which have greater financial, marketing and management resources than we do. We also compete with new companies that continue to be formed to enter the insurance and reinsurance markets. In addition, capital market participants have recently created alternative products that are intended to compete with reinsurance products. Increased competition could result in fewer submissions, lower premium rates and less favorable policy terms and conditions, which could have a material adverse effect on our growth and profitability.
The insurance and reinsurance business is historically cyclical, and we expect to experience periods with excess underwriting capacity and unfavorable premium rates.
The insurance and reinsurance business historically has been a cyclical industry characterized by periods of intense price competition due to excessive underwriting capacity as well as periods when shortages of capacity permitted favorable premium levels. An increase in premium levels is often offset by an increasing supply of insurance and reinsurance capacity, either by capital provided by new entrants or by the commitment of additional capital by existing insurers or reinsurers, which may cause prices to decrease. Any of these factors could lead to a significant reduction in premium rates, less favorable policy terms and fewer submissions for our underwriting services. In addition to these considerations, changes in the frequency and severity of losses suffered by insureds and insurers may affect the cycles of the insurance and reinsurance business significantly.
The regulatory system under which we operate, and potential changes thereto, could have a material adverse effect on our business.
In a time of financial uncertainty or a prolonged economic downturn or recession, regulators may choose to adopt more restrictive insurance laws and regulations, which may result in lower revenues and/or higher costs and thus could materially and adversely affect our results of operations.
Our insurance and reinsurance subsidiaries conduct business globally, including in 50 states of the U.S. and the District of Columbia. Our businesses in each of these jurisdictions are subject to varying degrees of regulation and supervision. The laws and regulations of the jurisdictions in which our insurance and reinsurance subsidiaries are domiciled require, among other things, that our subsidiaries maintain minimum levels of statutory capital and liquidity, meet solvency standards, participate in guaranty funds and submit to periodic examinations of their financial condition and compliance with underwriting regulations. These laws and regulations also sometimes restrict payments of dividends and reductions of capital. These statutes, regulations and policies may also restrict the ability of these subsidiaries to write insurance and reinsurance policies, to make certain investments and to distribute funds. The purpose of insurance laws and regulations generally is to protect insureds and ceding insurance companies, not our shareholders. We may not be able to comply fully with, or obtain appropriate exemptions from these statutes and regulations. Failure to comply with or to obtain appropriate authorizations and/or exemptions under any applicable laws could result in restrictions on our ability to do business or undertake activities that are regulated in one or more of the jurisdictions in which we conduct business and could subject us to fines and other sanctions. In addition, changes in the laws or regulations to which our insurance and reinsurance subsidiaries are subject could have an adverse effect on our business.
Potential government intervention in our industry as a result of recent events and instability in the marketplace for insurance products could hinder our flexibility and negatively affect the business opportunities that may be available to us in the market.
Government intervention and the possibility of future government intervention have created uncertainty in the insurance and reinsurance markets. Government regulators are generally concerned with the protection of policyholders to the exclusion of other constituencies, including shareholders of insurers and reinsurers. An example of such intervention was the expansion of the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund in 2007, which increased the capacity of the Fund to compete against commercial providers of catastrophe reinsurance. In addition, in recent years certain U.S. and non-U.S. regulatory authorities have commenced investigations into other business practices in the insurance industry. While we cannot predict the exact nature, timing or scope of possible governmental initiatives, such proposals could adversely affect our business by, among other things:
•
Providing reinsurance capacity in markets and to consumers that we target;
•
Requiring our further participation in industry pools and guaranty associations;
•
Expanding the scope of coverage under existing policies; e.g., following large disasters;
•
Further regulating the terms of insurance and reinsurance policies; or
•
Disproportionately benefiting the companies of one country over those of another.
Our ability to pay dividends and to make payments on indebtedness may be constrained by our holding company structure.
AXIS Capital is a holding company and has no direct operations of its own. AXIS Capital has no significant operations or assets other than its ownership of the shares of its operating insurance and reinsurance subsidiaries, AXIS Specialty Bermuda, AXIS Re Ltd., AXIS Specialty Europe, AXIS Re U.S., AXIS Specialty U.S., AXIS Surplus and AXIS Insurance Co. (collectively, our “Insurance Subsidiaries”). Dividends and other permitted distributions from our Insurance Subsidiaries (in some cases through our subsidiary holding companies), are our primary source of funds to meet ongoing cash requirements, including debt service payments and other expenses, and to pay dividends to our shareholders. Our Insurance Subsidiaries are subject to significant regulatory restrictions limiting their ability to declare and pay dividends and make distributions. The inability of our Insurance Subsidiaries to pay dividends in an amount sufficient to enable us to meet our cash requirements at the holding company level could have a material adverse effect on our business and our ability to pay dividends and make payments on our indebtedness.
AXIS Capital is a Bermuda company and it may be difficult for you to enforce judgments against it or its directors and executive officers.
AXIS Capital is incorporated pursuant to the laws of Bermuda and our business is based in Bermuda. In addition, some of our directors and officers reside outside the United States, and all or a substantial portion of our assets and the assets of such persons are located in jurisdictions outside the United States. As a result, it may be difficult or impossible to effect service of process within the United States upon those persons or to recover against us or them on judgments of U.S. courts, including judgments predicated upon civil liability provisions of the U.S. federal securities laws. Further, it may not be possible to bring a claim in Bermuda against us or our directors and officers for violation of U.S. federal securities laws because these laws may have no extraterritorial application under Bermuda law and do not have force of law in Bermuda. A Bermuda court may, however, impose civil liability, including the possibility of monetary damages, on us or our directors and officers if the facts alleged in a complaint constitute or give rise to a cause of action under Bermuda law.
There are provisions in our charter documents that may reduce or increase the voting rights of our shares.
Our bye-laws generally provide that shareholders have one vote for each common share held by them and are entitled to vote, on a non-cumulative basis, at all meetings of shareholders. However, the voting rights exercisable by a shareholder may be limited so that certain persons or groups are not deemed to hold 9.5% or more of the voting power conferred by our shares. Under these provisions, some shareholders may have the right to exercise their voting rights limited to less than one vote per share. Moreover, these provisions could have the effect of reducing the voting power of some shareholders who would not otherwise be subject to the limitation by virtue of their direct share ownership. In addition, our board of directors may limit a shareholder’s exercise of voting rights where it deems it necessary to do so to avoid adverse tax, legal or regulatory consequences.
We also have the authority under our bye-laws to request information from any shareholder for the purpose of determining whether a shareholder’s voting rights are to be limited pursuant to the bye-laws. If a shareholder fails to respond to our request for information or submits incomplete or inaccurate information in response to a request by us, we may, in our sole discretion, eliminate the shareholder’s voting rights.
There are provisions in our bye-laws that may restrict the ability to transfer common shares and which may require shareholders to sell their common shares.
Our board of directors may decline to register a transfer of any common shares under some circumstances, including if they have reason to believe that any non-de minimis adverse tax, regulatory or legal consequences to us, any of our
subsidiaries or any of our shareholders may occur as a result of such transfer. Our bye-laws also provide that if our board of directors determines that share ownership by a person may result in non-de minimis adverse tax, legal or regulatory consequences to us, any of our subsidiaries or any of our shareholders, then we have the option, but not the obligation, to require that shareholder to sell to us or to third parties to whom we assign the repurchase right for fair value the minimum number of common shares held by such person which is necessary to eliminate the non-de minimis adverse tax, legal or regulatory consequences.
Applicable insurance laws may make it difficult to effect a change of control of our company.
Before a person can acquire control of a U.S. insurance company, prior written approval must be obtained from the insurance commissioner of the state where the domestic insurer is domiciled. Prior to granting approval of an application to acquire control of a domestic insurer, the state insurance commissioner will consider such factors as the financial strength of the acquiror, the integrity and management of the acquiror’s board of directors and executive officers, the acquiror’s plans for the future operations of the domestic insurer and any anti-competitive results that may arise from the consummation of the acquisition of control. Generally, state statutes provide that control over a domestic insurer is presumed to exist if any person, directly or indirectly, owns, controls, holds with the power to vote, or holds proxies representing, 10% or more of the voting securities of the domestic insurer. Because a person acquiring 10% or more of our common shares would indirectly control the same percentage of the stock of the AXIS U.S. Subsidiaries, the insurance change of control laws of Connecticut, Illinois and New York would likely apply to such a transaction.
In addition, the Insurance Acts and Regulations in Ireland require that anyone acquiring or disposing of a direct or indirect holding in an Irish authorized insurance company (such as AXIS Specialty Europe) that represents 10% or more of the capital or of the voting rights of such company or that makes it possible to exercise a significant influence over the management of such company, or anyone who proposes to decrease or increase that holding to specified levels, must first notify the Irish Regulatory Authority of their intention to do so. They also require any Irish authorized insurance company that becomes aware of any acquisitions or disposals of its capital involving the specified levels to notify the Irish Regulatory Authority. The specified levels are 20%, 33% and 50% or such other level of ownership that results in the company becoming the acquiror’s subsidiary within the meaning of article 20 of the European Communities (non-Life Insurance) Framework Regulations 1994.
The Irish Regulatory Authority has three months from the date of submission of a notification within which to oppose the proposed transaction if the Irish Regulatory Authority is not satisfied as to the suitability of the acquiror in view of the necessity “to ensure prudent and sound management of the insurance undertaking concerned.” Any person owning 10% or more of the capital or voting rights or an amount that makes it possible to exercise a significant influence over the management of AXIS Capital would be considered to have a “qualifying holding” in AXIS Specialty Europe.
While our bye-laws limit the voting power of any shareholder to less than 9.5%, there can be no assurance that the applicable regulatory body would agree that a shareholder who owned 10% or more of our shares did not, because of the limitation on the voting power of such shares, control the applicable Insurance Subsidiary. These laws may discourage potential acquisition proposals and may delay, deter or prevent a change of control of the Company, including transactions that some or all of our shareholders might consider to be desirable.
Anti-takeover provisions in our bye-laws could impede an attempt to replace our directors or to effect a change in control, which could diminish the value of our common shares.
Our bye-laws contain provisions that may make it more difficult for shareholders to replace directors and could delay or prevent a change of control that a shareholder might consider favorable. These provisions include a staggered board of directors, limitations on the ability of shareholders to remove directors other than for cause, limitations on voting rights and restrictions on transfer of our common shares. These provisions may prevent a shareholder from receiving the benefit from any premium over the market price of our shares offered by a bidder in a potential takeover. Even in the absence of an attempt to effect a change in management or a takeover attempt, these provisions may adversely affect the prevailing market price of our shares if they are viewed as discouraging takeover attempts in the future.
We may become subject to taxes in Bermuda after March 28, 2016, which may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.
The Bermuda Minister of Finance, under the Exempted Undertakings Tax Protection Act 1966 of Bermuda, as amended, has given each of AXIS Capital and AXIS Specialty Bermuda an assurance that if any legislation is enacted in Bermuda that would impose tax computed on profits or income, or computed on any capital asset, gain or appreciation, or any tax in the nature of estate duty or inheritance tax, then the imposition of any such tax will not be applicable to AXIS Capital, AXIS Specialty Bermuda or any of their respective operations, shares, debentures or other obligations until March 28, 2016. Given the limited duration of the Minister of Finance’s assurance, we cannot be certain that we will not be subject to any Bermuda tax after March 28, 2016.
Our non-U.S. companies may be subject to U.S. tax that may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.
AXIS Capital and AXIS Specialty Bermuda are Bermuda companies, AXIS Specialty Holdings Ireland Limited (“AXIS Ireland Holdings”), AXIS Re Ltd., AXIS Specialty Europe, and AXIS Specialty Global Holdings Limited are Irish companies and AXIS Specialty U.K. Holdings Limited (“AXIS U.K. Holdings”) is a U.K. company. We intend to manage our business so that each of these companies will operate in such a manner that none of these companies should be subject to U.S. tax (other than U.S. excise tax on insurance and reinsurance premium income attributable to insuring or reinsuring U.S. risks and U.S. withholding tax on some types of U.S. source investment income), because none of these companies should be treated as engaged in a trade or business within the United States. However, because there is considerable uncertainty as to the activities that constitute being engaged in a trade or business within the United States, we cannot be certain that the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) will not contend successfully that any of AXIS Capital or its non-U.S. subsidiaries is/are engaged in a trade or business in the United States. If AXIS Capital or any of its non-U.S. subsidiaries were considered to be engaged in a trade or business in the United States, it could be subject to U.S. corporate income and additional branch profits taxes on the portion of its earnings effectively connected to such U.S. business. If this were to be the case, our results of operations could be materially adversely affected.
Our non-U.K. companies may be subject to U.K. tax that may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.
We intend to operate in such a manner so that none of our companies, other than AXIS U.K. Holdings, should be resident in the United Kingdom for tax purposes and that none of our companies, other than AXIS Ireland Holdings and AXIS Specialty Europe, should have a permanent establishment in the United Kingdom. Accordingly, we expect that none of our companies other than, AXIS U.K. Holdings, AXIS Ireland Holdings and AXIS Specialty Europe should be subject to U.K. tax. Nevertheless, because neither case law nor U.K. statutes conclusively define the activities that constitute trading in the United Kingdom through a permanent establishment, the U.K. Inland Revenue might contend successfully that any of our companies, in addition to AXIS U.K. Holdings, AXIS Ireland Holdings and AXIS Specialty Europe, is/are trading in the United Kingdom through a permanent establishment in the United Kingdom and therefore subject to U.K. tax. If this were the case, our results of operations could be materially adversely affected.
Our non-Irish companies may be subject to Irish tax that may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.
We intend to operate in such a manner so that none of our companies, other than AXIS Ireland Holdings, AXIS Re Ltd., AXIS Specialty Europe, and AXIS Specialty Global Holdings Limited should be resident in Ireland for tax purposes and that none of our companies, other than AXIS Ireland Holdings, AXIS Re Ltd., AXIS Specialty Europe, and AXIS Specialty Global Holdings Limited should be treated as carrying on a trade through a branch or agency in Ireland.
Accordingly, we expect that none of our companies other than AXIS Ireland Holdings, AXIS Re Ltd, AXIS Specialty Europe and AXIS Specialty Global Holdings Limited should be subject to Irish corporation tax. Nevertheless, since the determination as to whether a company is resident in Ireland is a question of fact to be determined based on a number of different factors and since neither case law nor Irish legislation conclusively defines the activities that constitute trading in
Ireland through a branch or agency, the Irish Revenue Commissioners might contend successfully that any of our companies, in addition to AXIS Ireland Holdings, AXIS Re Ltd., AXIS Specialty Europe and AXIS Specialty Global Holdings Limited, is resident in or otherwise trading through a branch or agency in Ireland and therefore subject to Irish corporation tax. If this were the case, our results of operations could be materially adversely affected.
If corporate tax rates in Ireland increase, our results of operations could be materially adversely affected.
Trading income derived from the insurance and reinsurance businesses carried on in Ireland by AXIS Specialty Europe and AXIS Re Ltd. is generally taxed in Ireland at a rate of 12.5%. Over the past number of years, various EU member states have, from time to time, called for harmonization of corporate tax rates within the EU. Ireland, along with other member states, has consistently resisted any movement towards standardized corporate tax rates in the EU. The Government of Ireland has also made clear its commitment to retain the 12.5% rate of corporation tax until at least the year 2025. If, however, tax laws in Ireland change so as to increase the general corporation tax rate in Ireland, our results of operations could be materially adversely affected.
If investments held by AXIS Specialty Europe or AXIS Re Ltd. are determined not to be integral to the insurance and reinsurance businesses carried on by those companies, additional Irish tax could be imposed and our business and financial results could be materially adversely affected.
Based on administrative practice, taxable income derived from investments made by AXIS Specialty Europe and AXIS Re Ltd. is generally taxed in Ireland at the rate of 12.5% on the grounds that such investments either form part of the permanent capital required by regulatory authorities, or are otherwise integral to the insurance and reinsurance businesses carried on by those companies. AXIS Specialty Europe and AXIS Re Ltd. intend to operate in such a manner so that the level of investments held by such companies does not exceed the amount that is integral to the insurance and reinsurance businesses carried on by AXIS Specialty Europe and AXIS Re Ltd. If, however, investment income earned by AXIS Specialty Europe or AXIS Re Ltd. exceeds these thresholds, or if the administrative practice of the Irish Revenue Commissioners changes, Irish corporation tax could apply to such investment income at a higher rate (currently 25%) instead of the general 12.5% rate, and our results of operations could be materially adversely affected.
The impact of Bermuda’s letter of commitment to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to eliminate harmful tax practices is uncertain and could adversely affect our tax status in Bermuda.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (the “OECD”) has published reports and launched a global dialogue among member and non-member countries on measures to limit harmful tax competition. These measures are largely directed at counteracting the effects of tax havens and preferential tax regimes in countries around the world. In the OECD’s report dated April 18, 2002 and periodically updated, Bermuda was not listed as an uncooperative tax haven jurisdiction because it had previously committed to eliminate harmful tax practices and to embrace international tax standards for transparency, exchange of information and the elimination of any aspects of the regimes for financial and other services that attract business with no substantial domestic activity. We are not able to predict what changes will arise from the commitment or whether such changes will subject us to additional taxes.
Changes in U.S. federal income tax law could materially adversely affect us.
Legislation has been introduced in the U.S. Congress intended to eliminate some perceived tax advantages of companies (including insurance companies) that have legal domiciles outside the United States but have certain U.S. connections. For example, legislation has been introduced in Congress to limit the deductibility of reinsurance premiums paid by U.S. companies to non-U.S. affiliates. It is possible that this or similar legislation could be introduced in and enacted by the current Congress or future Congresses and could have an adverse impact on us.
ITEM 1B.
ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS
We have no outstanding, unresolved comments from the SEC staff at December 31, 2008.
ITEM 2.
ITEM 2. PROPERTIES
We maintain office facilities in the United States, Bermuda, Europe, Canada, Australia and Singapore. We own the property in which our offices are located in Dublin, Ireland, and we lease office space in the other countries. We renew and enter into new leases in the ordinary course of business as required. Our worldwide headquarters office is located at 92 Pitts Bay Road, Pembroke, Bermuda. We believe that our office space is sufficient for us to conduct our operations for the foreseeable future.
ITEM 3.
ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
Except as set forth below, we are not a party to any material legal proceedings. From time to time, we are subject to routine legal proceedings, including arbitrations, arising in the ordinary course of business. These legal proceedings generally relate to claims asserted by or against us in the ordinary course of our insurance or reinsurance operations.
In 2005, a putative class action lawsuit was filed against our U.S. insurance subsidiaries. In re Insurance Brokerage Antitrust Litigation was filed on August 15, 2005 in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey and includes as defendants numerous insurance brokers and insurance companies. The lawsuit alleges antitrust and Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”) violations in connection with the payment of contingent commissions and manipulation of insurance bids and seeks damages in an unspecified amount. On October 3, 2006, the District Court granted, in part, motions to dismiss filed by the defendants, and ordered plaintiffs to file supplemental pleadings setting forth sufficient facts to allege their antitrust and RICO claims. After plaintiffs filed their supplemental pleadings, defendants renewed their motions to dismiss. On April 15, 2007, the District Court dismissed without prejudice plaintiffs’ complaint, as amended, and granted plaintiffs thirty (30) days to file another amended complaint and/or revised RICO Statement and Statements of Particularity. In May 2007, plaintiffs filed (i) a Second Consolidated Amended Commercial Class Action complaint, (ii) a Revised Particularized Statement Describing the Horizontal Conspiracies Alleged in the Second Consolidated Amended Commercial Class Action Complaint, and (iii) a Third Amended Commercial Insurance Plaintiffs’ RICO Case Statement Pursuant to Local Rule 16.1(B)(4). On June 21, 2007, the defendants filed renewed motions to dismiss. On September 28, 2007, the District Court dismissed with prejudice plaintiffs’ antitrust and RICO claims and declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over plaintiffs’ remaining state law claims. On October 10, 2007, plaintiffs filed a notice of appeal of all adverse orders and decisions to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and a hearing is scheduled for April 2009. We believe that the lawsuit is completely without merit and we continue to vigorously defend the filed action.
ITEM 4.
ITEM 4. SUBMISSION OF MATTERS TO A VOTE OF SECURITY HOLDERS
Not applicable.
PART II
ITEM 5.
ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES
Our common shares, $0.0125 par value, are listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “AXS”. The following table sets forth the high and low sales prices per share of our common shares for each of the fiscal quarters in the last two fiscal years as reported on the New York Stock Exchange Composite Tape:
On February 19, 2009, the number of holders of record of our common shares was 53. This figure does not represent the actual number of beneficial owners of our common shares because shares are frequently held in “street name” by securities dealers and others for the benefit of beneficial owners who may vote the shares.
For the years ended December 31, 2007 and 2008, we paid dividends quarterly on our common shares. The declaration and payment of future dividends will be at the discretion of our Board of Directors and will depend upon many factors, including our earnings, financial condition, business needs, capital and surplus requirements of our operating subsidiaries and regulatory and contractual restrictions, including those set forth in our credit facility.
As a holding company, our principal source of income is dividends or other statutorily permissible payments from our subsidiaries. The ability of our subsidiaries to pay dividends is limited by the applicable laws and regulations of the various countries in which we operate, including Bermuda, the United States and Ireland. See Item 8, Note 18 to the Consolidated Financial Statements included in this report.
ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES
The following table sets forth information regarding the number of shares we repurchased in the quarter ended December 31, 2008:
(a) Share repurchases relating to withhold to cover tax liabilities upon vesting of restricted stock awards are excluded from our share repurchase plan.
(b) On December 7, 2006, our Board of Directors authorized a renewal of our share repurchase plan with the authorization to repurchase up to $400 million of our common shares to be effected from time to time in the open market or privately negotiated transactions. This repurchase plan expired on December 31, 2008. On December 6, 2007, our Board of Directors approved a new share repurchase plan with the authorization to repurchase up to an additional $400 million of our common shares. This repurchase plan is authorized to continue until December 31, 2009.
ITEM 6.
ITEM 6. SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA
The following tables set forth our selected historical consolidated financial information for the last five years. This data should also be read in conjunction with the Consolidated Financial Statements and the accompanying notes presented under Item 8 and with the Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations under Item 7.
ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
The following is a discussion and analysis of our results of operations for the years ended December 31, 2008, 2007 and 2006 and our financial condition at December 31, 2008 and 2007. This should be read in conjunction with the Consolidated Financial Statements and related notes included in Item 8 of this report. Tabular dollars are in thousands, except per share amounts. Amounts in tables may not reconcile due to rounding differences.
FINANCIAL MEASURES
We believe the following financial indicators are important in evaluating our performance and measuring the overall growth in value generated for our common shareholders:
Return on average common equity (“ROACE”): ROACE represents the level of net income available to common shareholders generated from the average of the opening and closing common shareholders’ equity during the period. Our objective is to generate superior returns on capital that appropriately reward our common shareholders for the risks we assume and to grow revenue only when we deem the returns meet or exceed our requirements. Although we recognize that the underwriting cycle is such that short-term excess profitability may be difficult to achieve, our current objective is to achieve an average ROACE of 15% or greater over the underwriting cycles.
ROACE was 8.1% for 2008 compared to 24.6% and 26.7% for 2007 and 2006, respectively. Our ROACE in 2008 was negatively impacted by Hurricanes Ike and Gustav as well as investment losses relating to the financial market crisis. In comparison, our ROACE in 2007 and 2006 benefited from an absence of major catastrophe losses and stable financial market conditions.
Diluted book value per common share (“DBV per common share”): DBV per common share represents total common shareholders’ equity divided by the number of common shares and diluted common share equivalents outstanding, using the treasury stock method. We consider DBV per common share an appropriate measure of our returns to common shareholders, as we believe growth in our book value on a diluted basis ultimately translates into growth of our stock price. DBV per common share was $25.79, $28.79 and $23.45 at December 31, 2008, 2007 and 2006, respectively.
The reduction in DBV per common share in the current year was primarily due to an increase in net unrealized losses on our investment portfolio of $735 million, share repurchases of $291 million, and dividends to common and preferred shareholders of $158 million. This was partially offset by net income of $387 million. The increase in DBV per common share in 2007 as compared with 2006 was primarily due to net income in the year of $1.0 billion.
Cash dividends per common share: Our dividend policy is an integral part of the value we create for our shareholders. Our cash dividends declared in 2008 were $0.755 per common share compared to $0.68 and $0.615 per common share in 2007 and 2006, respectively. Our Board of Directors reviews our dividend policy on a regular basis and in December 2008, they authorized an 8% increase in our quarterly dividend.
RESULTS OF OPERATIONS OVERVIEW
The table below breaks out net income into three components: underwriting income, investment income and net realized gains/losses, and other revenues and expenses. Underwriting income on a segment basis is a measure of underwriting profitability that takes into account net premiums earned and other insurance related income as revenue and net losses and loss expenses, acquisition costs and underwriting related general and administrative costs as expenses. Underwriting income is the difference between these revenue and expense items. Our investment portfolio is managed on a total return basis and we have therefore reviewed investment income and net realized gains/losses together. Other revenues and expenses represent corporate expenses, foreign exchange gains/losses, interest expense and income tax expense.
Underwriting Results
2008 versus 2007: Total underwriting income in 2008 decreased $431 million, or 58%, compared to 2007. The reduction was driven by net losses of $384 million, net of related earned reinstatement premiums, incurred from Hurricanes Ike and Gustav. Almost three-quarters of these hurricane losses were incurred within our reinsurance segment.
2007 versus 2006: Total underwriting income in 2007 increased $63 million compared to 2006. There was an absence of major loss activity in both years and the increase in income was primarily due to additional prior period reserve development within both segments.
Refer to “Underwriting Results - Group”, below, for further discussion.
Investment Results
2008 versus 2007: Net investment income and net realized investment gains/losses in 2008 decreased $326 million compared to 2007. This reduction was driven by a combination of lower investment income from our other investment portfolio ($255 million) coupled with higher realized investment losses ($90 million). Our other investments were impacted by significant valuation declines in credit funds and hedge funds, resulting from the unprecedented disruption to the global markets. Our fixed maturities produced $432 million of net investment income in 2008, an increase of 17% over the prior year, reflecting higher average investment balances.
2007 versus 2006: Total net investment income and net realized investment gains/losses in 2007 increased $107 million compared to 2006. This increase was primarily due to a $78 million increase in investment income from our fixed maturities, reflecting higher average investment balances. In addition, we experienced an increase of $31 million in net realized investment gains.
Refer to “Net Investment Income and Net Realized Gains/Losses”, below, for further discussion.
Other Revenues and Expenses
The following table provides a breakdown of our other revenues and expenses:
Corporate expenses: Our corporate expenses include holding company costs necessary to support our worldwide insurance and reinsurance operations and costs associated with operating as a publicly-traded company. As a percentage of net premiums earned, corporate expenses were 2.7%, 2.1% and 2.2% for 2008, 2007, and 2006 respectively. The increase in our corporate expense ratio in 2008 was primarily due to higher share-based compensation costs, principally associated with the renewed employment contract for our CEO and a higher grant date fair value on issued awards year over year (refer to Item 8, Note 15 “Stock Compensation Plans” to the Consolidated Financial Statements).
Foreign exchange gains: Some of our business is written in currencies other than U.S. dollars. The foreign exchange gain in 2008 was primarily due to the remeasurement of net liability balances denominated in Euro, following its depreciation against the U.S. dollar during the year. The foreign exchange gains in 2007 and 2006 were driven by the revaluation of net asset balances denominated in several foreign currencies, following their appreciation against the U.S. dollar over this period.
Interest expense: Interest expense primarily includes interest due on the senior notes we issued in 2004. In 2007, it also included interest costs of $19 million incurred on a $400 million repurchase agreement we entered into in December 2006 to finance a life settlement investment. We terminated this agreement in September, 2007.
Income tax expense: Income tax is generated primarily through our foreign operations in the United States and Europe. Our effective tax rate may vary between periods depending on the distribution of net income or losses among our various taxable jurisdictions. Our effective tax rate, which we calculate as income tax expense or recovery divided by income or loss before income tax, was 4.9% for 2008 compared with 3.7% in 2007 and 3.4% in 2006. The increase in our effective tax rate in 2008 was associated with the establishment of a full valuation allowance ($30 million) against net deferred tax assets arising from U.S. realized capital losses and investment impairments arising during the year, due to insufficient positive evidence currently for recognition. Excluding this item, we otherwise recorded a tax benefit in 2008, primarily as a result of taxable losses in our U.S. subsidiaries.
UNDERWRITING RESULTS - GROUP
The following table provides our group underwriting results for the periods indicated:
(1) Refer to Item 8, Note 3 to the Consolidated Financial Statements, for a reconciliation of underwriting income to net income available to common shareholders for the periods indicated above.
nm - not meaningful
UNDERWRITING REVENUES
Premiums Written: Gross and net premiums written, by segment, were as follows:
2008 versus 2007: The 6% reduction in consolidated gross premiums emanates from our insurance segment, reflecting the reduction of business due to deteriorating market conditions across most of our property and casualty insurance lines of business. In addition, our credit and political risk insurance line was negatively impacted by a reduction in available transactions associated with a slow down in the capital flows amidst the ongoing global financial crisis. Gross premiums
written in our reinsurance segment in 2008 were largely unchanged from 2007. Although market conditions deteriorated moderately during the year, the impact of this was largely offset by some growth opportunities.
The increase in premiums ceded in 2008 primarily reflects the purchase of additional quota share coverage within our casualty and professional lines business this year. This additional reinsurance protection has allowed us to reduce our overall risk exposures cost-effectively.
2007 versus 2006: Gross premiums written in 2007 were largely flat relative to 2006. In our insurance segment, increases in credit and political risk, professional lines and U.S. exposed catastrophe property premium were offset by the impact of competitive market conditions and rate pressures in our other lines. In our reinsurance segment, although we increased our market penetration in the U.S. and European reinsurance markets during the January 1 renewal season, this was largely offset by the impact of increased client retention in our professional lines business and the change in renewal date of a large property pro rata contract.
The increase in our ceded premiums ratios was partially due to a change in business mix towards lines with higher levels of ceded premium. We also purchased additional quota share reinsurance on our professional lines business and expanded our worldwide property program in 2007.
Net Premium Earned: Net premiums earned by segment were as follows:
2008 versus 2007: The reduction in net premiums earned in 2008 as compared with 2007 primarily emanates from our insurance segment, reflecting lower net premiums written this year, partially offset by the impact of growth in certain lines of business in prior years. Refer to the insurance segment results below for further information.
2007 versus 2006: Although net premiums earned in 2007 were largely flat with 2006, we experienced a shift in mix from insurance to reinsurance business. Our reinsurance segment benefited from growth of its underwriting operations in recent years, while changes in business mix and an expansion of our reinsurance coverage had the effect of reducing net premiums earned in our insurance segment.
Other Insurance Related Income / Loss: In 2008, we recorded an increase of $41 million, relating to the change in fair value of our insurance derivative contract liability primarily attributable to adverse longevity experience to date. For further information refer to our “Critical Accounting Estimate - Fair Value Measurements.”
UNDERWRITING EXPENSES
The following table provides a breakdown of our combined ratio:
(1) Our general and administration expense ratio includes corporate expenses not allocated to our underwriting segments of 2.7%, 2.1% and 2.2%, for 2008, 2007 and 2006, respectively. These costs are discussed further in “Other Revenue and Expenses”, above.
Loss ratio:
Current Year Loss Ratio:
2008 versus 2007
The 15.3 ratio point increase in our current year loss ratio this year was driven by higher catastrophe losses, primarily emanating from net losses incurred on Hurricanes Ike and Gustav of $408 million, or 15.2 ratio points.
On September 1, Hurricane Gustav made landfall on the Louisiana Gulf coast as a category 2 hurricane. The hurricane and tropical storm force winds of Hurricane Gustav as well as spin-off tornadoes caused damage in our coverage areas of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The industry losses estimated by Risk Management Solutions, a risk modeling agency, currently stand at $4 billion to $10 billion, and include wind-related damages, flood-related damages and business interruption. Our estimate of net losses from Hurricane Gustav is $31 million, of which $28 million emanates from our insurance segment and $3 million from our reinsurance segment. Our estimate at December 31, 2008 was primarily based on reported loss information from our clients, brokers and loss adjusters, supplemented by our review of in-force contracts, the output of industry models and a market share analysis.
On September 12, Hurricane Ike made landfall on Galveston Island in the State of Texas as a category 2 hurricane causing widespread flooding and wind damage throughout the Galveston and Houston areas. Prior to making landfall, Hurricane Ike moved through offshore energy production areas in the Gulf of Mexico. The industry losses estimated by Risk Management Solutions, a risk modeling agency, currently stand at $13 billion to $21 billion, and include wind-related damages, flood-related damages and business interruption. Our estimate of net losses from Hurricane Ike is $377 million, of which $98 million emanates from our insurance segment and $278 million from our reinsurance segment.
The balance of our loss estimates for Hurricane Ike were primarily based on reported loss information from our clients, brokers and loss adjusters, supplemented by our review of in-force contracts, the output of industry models and a market share analysis.
Industry-wide insured losses and our own loss estimates for Hurricanes Gustav and Ike are subject to change as claims continue to be reported and adjusted. Actual losses may ultimately differ materially from current loss estimates.
Our current year loss ratio in 2008 was also negatively impacted by, among other things, a higher frequency and severity of property losses in our insurance segment as well as increased accident year initial loss ratios within many of our lines of business as a result of pricing deterioration. Offsetting these factors, our 2008 current year loss ratio benefited from the incorporation of more of our own loss experience within a number of our short-tail lines of business, relative to the prior year. In addition, we had a relatively higher level of loss recoveries in 2008 within our Insurance segment, as a result of our expanded reinsurance coverage.
On December 11, 2008, Bernard Madoff, Chairman of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, was charged with perpetrating a substantial investor fraud within the asset management division of the firm. Based on our assessment of the precautionary notifications received to date in our financial institutions insurance lines, together with our preliminary review of other potential exposure within our insurance and reinsurance professional lines business, we currently estimate losses relating to this event will be contained within our loss ratios.
2007 versus 2006
Our current year loss ratio in 2007 increased slightly over the prior year, largely reflecting a shift in business mix towards longer-tail lines. Because our long tail lines typically have a higher initial expected loss ratio relative to our short tail lines, this resulted in a slight increase in our overall current year loss ratio. We experienced below average catastrophe and attritional loss activity in both 2007 and 2006.
Prior period reserve development:
Prior period development was the net favorable result of several underlying reserve developments on prior accident years, identified during our quarterly reserving process. The following table provides a break down of prior period development by segment:
Net favorable prior period reserve development in each of the last three years was primarily generated from the property, marine, terrorism and aviation lines of our insurance segment and the property and catastrophe lines of our reinsurance segment. The favorable development reflects the recognition of better than expected loss emergence rather than explicit changes to our actuarial assumptions.
We generally use the Bornhuetter-Ferguson (“B-F”) actuarial method on our short-tail lines of business which gives progressively more weighting to our actual loss experience as each accident year matures. In each of the last three years, the application of the B-F method has resulted in a reduction to our ultimate loss estimates, due to the fact that our actual experience has included less than expected late reporting and reduced deterioration on previously reported claims, relative to our previous expectations. This partly stems from the fact that historically we had relied heavily upon industry based profiles. Due to the inherent limitations of this, our loss reserves in prior years have also included a provision for reporting delays and other uncertainties specific to our business. These include the inherent delays we expect to arise from obtaining loss information on excess layers of business across our diverse worldwide exposures. As it has transpired, our actual claims experience in the last three years has been better than we projected, with late reporting being less prevalent than we anticipated. Refer to our “Critical Accounting Estimate on Loss Reserves” for further discussion.
In addition to this broader claims experience, favorable prior period reserve development has also occurred as a result of our take down of provisions relating to specific catastrophe events. On contracts that respond to highly visible, major events, we establish IBNR where potential exposure has been identified. However, in a number of instances, mainly within our excess of loss catastrophe reinsurance business, it transpired that claims did not develop to a sufficient level to reach our attachment points.
We have also experienced some adverse development on our short-tail lines in the periods indicated above, the most significant of which was in 2006, when we strengthened our KRW reserves from accident year 2005 by $105 million. The size and complexity of KRW resulted in claims that increased over previously reported damage estimates.
As we continue to incorporate more of our own historical loss experience into our current year loss ratios (see above), we expect that the level of favorable prior period reserve development on our short-tail lines will be less than recorded in prior years. However, we caution that conditions and trends that impacted the development of our liabilities in the past may not necessarily occur in the future.
In 2008, we also recorded prior period reserve development from certain medium and long-tail lines of business. First, we experienced $65 million of net favorable development on the credit and political risk lines in our insurance segment. This was generated from our credit related classes, partially in recognition of lower than expected loss activity and also due to adopting a more accelerated loss development profile on these lines. We also recognized favorable prior period reserve development from our traditional political risk book from accident years 2004 and prior.
Second, we experienced net adverse development of $10 million on our professional lines and liability business. This was the result of several favorable and adverse reserve developments, the most significant of which were as follows:
•
Adverse development of $48 million on our accident year 2007 professional lines reserves. During the year, a number of large financial institutions incurred significant financial losses and, in some cases, bankruptcy precipitated by the continued deterioration in the U.S. sub-prime residential mortgage market and the ensuing dislocation in the credit markets. These market driven events triggered claims against directors and officers of impacted institutions as well as providers of professional services of these institutions. As part of our reserving process, we considered the potential impact of market events on our financial institutions insurance portfolio. This included a review for exposure to known notifications of potential loss, as well as a review of accounts that may have exposure in this area, but have not yet provided notice of a claim. We also performed a similar review in our reinsurance segment, where potential exposure primarily exists within financial institution classes underwritten by our cedants. As a result, we strengthened our accident year 2007 reserves by $37 million in our insurance segment and by $11 million in our reinsurance segment. Although our reserves provide for potential future deterioration in our exposure to the credit crisis, while the crisis prevails and as new information is reported, actual losses may ultimately differ materially from our current estimates.
•
Favorable prior period reserve development of $57 million on our accident year 2003 and 2004 professional lines business, of which $32 million was generated from our insurance segment and $25 million from our reinsurance segment. The favorable development was due to the fact that we began to incorporate more of our own claims experience into our loss ratios, with less weighting on our initial expected loss ratios derived from industry benchmarks. We believe that for these more mature accident years, for this claims-made line of business, our loss experience is sufficiently developed, and therefore more statistically reliable.
•
Net adverse development of $8 million on the liability lines of our insurance segment. This was largely due to higher than expected loss emergence on a specific program across several accident years.
•
Net adverse development of $7 million on our accident year 2003 liability reserves in our reinsurance segment. This was driven by adverse claims experience on a specific stop loss contract.
For further discussion on our current and prior year loss ratios, refer to the insurance and reinsurance segment discussions below.
General and Administrative ratio:
2008 versus 2007: Our general and administrative ratio in 2008 of 12.5% increased 1.4 ratio points over 2007. The increase was due to a combination of lower net premiums earned, additional headcount and higher share-based compensation costs. This was partially offset by a reduction in accrued incentive-based compensation as compared to the prior year, which is based on our operating results.
2007 versus 2006: Our general and administrative ratio in 2007 of 11.1%, increased by 1.1 ratio points over 2006, primarily reflecting the costs associated with growing the infrastructure of our business. In particular, we incurred higher staffing costs in 2007 relating to the expansion of our insurance operations in the U.S., including those related to our acquisition of the Media Pro business in the second quarter.
RESULTS BY SEGMENT
INSURANCE SEGMENT
Results from our insurance segment were as follows:
nm - not meaningful
2008 versus 2007: In 2008, underwriting income in our insurance segment decreased $187 million, or 50%, over the prior year, primarily due to losses incurred of $127 million from Hurricanes Ike and Gustav. These losses contributed 10.7 points to our 2008 combined ratio. Underwriting income in our insurance segment was also impacted by a $41 million increase in the estimated fair value of an insurance derivative contract liability, which is included in other insurance related income.
2007 versus 2006: In 2007, underwriting income in our insurance segment increased 3% over the prior year, primarily due to higher levels of prior period favorable reserve development. Our current year loss ratio was largely comparable with limited large loss activity in both years. Net premiums earned in 2007 were down 7% versus 2006, primarily reflecting changes in business mix along with an expansion of our reinsurance coverage.
Gross premiums written: The following table provides gross premiums written by line of business:
2008 versus 2007: The global property and casualty insurance markets continued to be highly competitive during 2008 with surplus capacity and price deterioration remaining prevalent. Gross premiums written declined in most of our lines of business reflecting declining rates for new and renewal business and the non-renewal of business that did not meet our underwriting requirements. The reduction in property premiums also reflects our decision to reduce our overall risk exposure to this business while unfavorable market conditions persist. Our credit and political risk premium also decreased reflecting the reduction in available transactions associated with a slow down in capital flows amidst the global financial crisis.
Partially offsetting these decreases, we experienced growth in our professional lines business this year. In 2008, this line benefited from renewal rights we acquired in conjunction with our purchase of the Media Pro business in the second quarter of 2007. In addition, in the later part of the year, the growth was driven by new business arising from disruptions in the financial institutions sector together with some rate increases on renewal business.
2007 versus 2006: In general, market conditions globally were increasingly competitive during 2007 and, as a result, we experienced increased pricing pressure across many of our insurance lines. The overall stability of gross premiums written in 2007 versus 2006 reflects our breadth of products and markets worldwide, which gave us the flexibility to allocate capacity within other lines of business. Credit and political risk premium can vary considerably between periods depending on the timing of transactions. However, additional underwriters in this line allowed us to increase the number of contracts written in 2007, the majority of which were related to emerging market sovereign and corporate credit insurance. The other notable increase in 2007 was on our professional lines book. This was largely associated with renewal rights acquired in the May 2007 purchase of the Media Pro business. Other than U.S. exposed catastrophe property business, which continued to present good opportunities, market conditions in our other lines of business continued to be less favorable during 2007. This largely limited our ability to expand these lines, although we continued to seek out the better priced and structured opportunities.
Premiums ceded:
2008 versus 2007: Premiums ceded in 2008 were $708 million, or 38.4% of gross premiums written, compared with $713 million, or 34.9%, in 2007. The increase in our ceded premium ratio primarily reflects the purchase of additional quota share coverage within our casualty and professional lines business this year. The increase also partially reflects the impact of business mix, in particular the growth of our professional lines business this year together with the reduction in credit and political risk premiums, a line for which we do not purchase reinsurance cover.
2007 versus 2006: Premiums ceded in 2007 were $713 million, or 34.9% of gross premiums written, compared with $610 million, or 29.5% of gross premiums written in 2006. The increase in premiums ceded was largely related to the impact of changes in business mix and additional reinsurance cover purchased during 2007. While we significantly reduced gross
premiums written on our aviation and terrorism lines during 2007, we offset these reductions with growth of our credit and political risk, property and professional lines business. Because we have historically purchased more reinsurance cover on our property and professional lines business relative to our aviation and terrorism lines, this change in business mix had the effect of increasing our ceded premium ratio. Furthermore, we also purchased additional coverage in 2007, both on our professional lines quota share reinsurance and also on our worldwide property program. These factors were partially offset by lower reinsurance costs within our property line of business this year, reflecting both rate reductions and increased retentions within certain parts of our book.
Net premiums earned: The following table provides net premiums earned by line of business:
2008 versus 2007: The 2% decrease in net premiums earned in 2008 primarily reflects the decrease in net premiums written this year, although the rate of reduction has been less accelerated. This was partially due to growth of our credit and political risk line of business in prior years, which typically provides multi-year coverage, and therefore earns over a greater number of periods. The average duration of the unearned premium on our credit and political risk line of business at December 31, 2008 was 5.4 years. Net premiums earned in 2008 also benefited from growth in property premiums in prior years as well as lower ceded premium amortized costs on this business in 2008, as discussed above.
2007 versus 2006: The 7% decrease in net premiums earned in 2007 largely reflects a 9% reduction in net premiums written in 2007, associated with the increase in premiums ceded.
Insurance Losses
Loss ratio: The table below shows the components of our loss ratio:
Current Year Loss Ratio:
2008 versus 2007
The 11.0 ratio point increase in our current year loss ratio was the net result of several factors, the most significant of which were as follows:
•
Higher catastrophe losses in 2008, driven by net losses incurred of $127 million, or 10.7 points, on Hurricanes Ike and Gustav.
•
A higher frequency and severity of property losses in 2008, including mining losses in Australia and several other worldwide property risk losses.
•
An increase in the loss ratios of our professional lines business, primarily reflecting the impact of the sub-prime crisis on our portfolio.
•
An increase in most of our initial expected loss ratio (“ILER”) method selections, reflecting the impact of pricing deterioration across most of our portfolio, partially offset by more favorable pricing on our ceded reinsurance.
•
A reduction in our credit and political risk loss ratio relative to 2007. This was primarily due to accelerating the loss development profile of our credit related classes based on our historical loss experience. Although we experienced an increase in loss activity from these classes during the second half of 2008, stemming from the economic downturn, these losses remained within our initial loss ratios.
•
The incorporation of more of our own historical loss experience within our short-tail lines of business. Because this experience has generally been better than we expected (see below) this had the impact of reducing our net IBNR reserves on several lines of business, relative to 2007. Refer to our “Critical Accounting Estimate-Reserves for Losses and Loss Expenses” for further information.
2007 versus 2006
Our current year loss ratio in 2007 was relatively flat compared with 2006. Although changes in business mix increased our current year ratio in 2007, this was largely offset by lower attritional losses in the year, most notably on our energy onshore account. During 2007, we experienced a shift in business mix from aviation and terrorism lines to our professional lines account. Our professional lines business typically has a higher initial expected loss ratio than our aviation and terrorism lines.
Prior Period Reserve Development:
2008 Net Loss Development
We experienced net favorable prior period reserve development in 2008 of $202 million, or 17.1 ratio points, the principal movements of which were as follows:
•
$147 million of net favorable prior period reserve development on our property ($90 million), aviation ($30 million) and marine ($27 million) lines of business, the majority of which have short to medium tail exposures. This development was largely generated from accident years 2007 ($67 million), 2006 ($40 million) and 2005 ($18 million).
•
Net favorable prior period reserve development of $65 million from our credit and political risk line of business, the majority of which was generated from accident years 2004 to 2006.
•
Net adverse development of $6 million from our professional lines business. This was driven by adverse development of $37 million from accident year 2007 stemming from the credit crisis, partially offset by favorable development of $32 million on accident years 2003 and 2004.
•
Net adverse development of $8 million on our liability business, predominately from accident years 2004 and prior.
2007 Net Loss Development
We experienced net favorable prior period reserve development in 2007 of $214 million, or 17.7 ratio points, the principal movements of which were as follows:
•
$202 million of net favorable prior period reserve development on our property ($112 million), marine ($44 million), aviation lines ($37 million) and terrorism ($9 million) lines of business. This development was primarily generated from accident year 2006 ($127 million), 2004 ($44 million) and 2003 ($26 million). Our accident year 2005 reserves were adversely impacted by the strengthening of our KRW loss estimates by approximately $34 million.
•
$15 million of favorable development on our accident year 2003 professional lines business. This related to a specific claim, which we had previously made provision for, but removed following a favorable court ruling.
•
Adverse development of $8 million on our 2006 accident and health business due to a higher than expected emergence of claims.
•
$7 million of adverse development on our accident year 2004 and 2005 liability reserves, due to a higher than expected emergence of claims on a specific program.
2006 Net Loss Development
We experienced net favorable prior period reserve development in 2006 of $168 million, or 12.8 ratio points, the principal movements of which were as follows:
•
$181 million of net favorable prior period reserve development on our property ($106 million), aviation ($65 million) and terrorism ($10 million) lines of business. This development was primarily generated from accident year 2005 ($80 million), 2004 ($73 million) and 2003 ($27 million).
•
Adverse development of $16 million on our marine lines of business. This was driven by adverse development of $68 million on our accident year 2005 reserves, reflecting deteriorating KRW claims experience on our energy offshore business. This was partially offset by favorable development from older accident years.
Refer to “Prior Period Reserve Development” within our Group Underwriting Results, above, for discussion on the underlying reasons for these movements
2009 Insurance Outlook
The insurance markets generally remain highly competitive, with surplus capacity and consequent pricing pressure continuing to prevail in most lines. Although market conditions continue to soften, the rate at which this is occurring has slowed considerably. Terms and conditions as well as breadth of coverage generally remain stable with terms of trade holding firm. We are observing more positive change in catastrophe-exposed property lines. We started to observe the quantum of rate reductions in these property lines reduce and then stabilize towards the end of 2008 and through January 2009. We expect to see this momentum increase as we head into the key March 1st and April 1st property renewals. A number of our key competitors appear to be reducing critical catastrophe exposure which will have further positive impact on the market. We are particularly well-positioned in this market to capitalize on the upturn. Offshore energy is also hardening due to the impact of Hurricane Ike. We are observing price increases on non-Gulf of Mexico exposure in the range of 15 to 20%. Although there have not yet been any Gulf of Mexico renewals of note, we are expecting significant pricing improvements going forward.
Although the professional lines market remains competitive, we are observing new opportunities arising from the dislocation of business formerly placed with certain distressed insurers. Our continued financial strength has significantly improved our competitive position in the professional lines market. In the financial institutions class, rates in the fourth quarter of 2008 continued to increase and we expect this to continue throughout 2009. In the casualty lines, after brief stabilization in the marketplace towards the end of 2008, we have seen aggressive competition return driven by distressed insurers. We believe our areas of focus still contain good profit potential, but risk selection and overall execution strategy
are critical. We expect competition in the liability market to abate gradually as the impact of rising reinsurance costs take affect and as clients move more business to insurers with stronger financial strength.
REINSURANCE SEGMENT
Results from our reinsurance segment were as follows:
2008 versus 2007: Total underwriting income in 2008 decreased $245 million, or 67%, versus 2007. The reduction was driven by net losses of $257 million, net of related earned reinstatement premiums, incurred from Hurricanes Ike and Gustav. Partially offsetting this, 2008 benefited from a higher level of prior year favorable reserve development.
2007 versus 2006: Total underwriting income in 2007 increased $52 million, or 17%, versus 2006. The increase was driven by $74 million of additional prior period net favorable reserve development. This was partially offset by a higher current accident year loss ratio in 2007, which was in large part due to changes in our business mix. Net premiums earned increased by 10% in 2007, reflecting the impact of expanding of our reinsurance operations in prior years.
Gross Premiums Written: The following table provides gross premiums written by line of business:
2008 versus 2007: Gross premiums written in 2008 benefited from a weakened U.S. dollar relative to 2007. In particular, the U.S. dollar was weaker against the Euro at our major renewal of January 1. This primarily impacted our property, credit and bond and motor lines of business. Gross premiums written otherwise decreased 3% in 2008, which was partially due to the impact of premium adjustments on prior year proportional and excess of loss professional lines and liability contracts. In 2008, we recorded negative premium adjustments of $18 million and $13 million on our professional lines business and liability business, respectively, compared to positive adjustments of $8 million and $6 million, respectively in the prior year.
The opportunity for growth within our reinsurance portfolio was generally limited this year, reflecting a modest deterioration in global market conditions. In addition, we experienced an ongoing trend of higher risk retention by our clients, particularly on our liability lines. These factors were partially offset by growth opportunities within our engineering and crop line of business this year. We also recorded $28 million of reinstatement premiums in connection with Hurricanes Ike and Gustav on our catastrophe line of business. Our property premiums in 2008 benefited from the renewal of a significant 16-month pro-rata contract, which previously renewed in 2006.
2007 versus 2006: Gross premiums written in 2007 benefited from a weakened U.S. dollar relative to 2006. In particular, the U.S. dollar was weaker against the Euro and Sterling at our major renewal date of January 1. Gross premiums written otherwise decreased 3% in 2007, reflecting reductions in our property and professional lines business. The decrease in property premiums was primarily due to a large 16-month pro rata contract, written in the fourth quarter of 2006, not renewed until 2008. Our professional lines book was impacted by the non-renewal of several large contracts, driven by cedants opting to increase their retention of business. Our other lines of business mostly reported an increase in gross premiums written in 2007. These increases were largely generated from our increased participation in the U.S. and European reinsurance markets.
Net premiums earned: The following table provides net premiums earned by line of business:
Net premiums earned in our reinsurance segment in 2008 were largely unchanged with 2007, generally reflecting stability in our gross premiums written over the last three years, as discussed above. The 10% increase in net premiums earned in 2007 versus 2006 primarily reflects the impact of significantly expanding our U.S. and European reinsurance operations in 2004 and 2005.
Reinsurance Losses
Loss ratio: The table below shows the components of our loss ratio:
Current Year Loss Ratio:
2008 versus 2007
The 18.7 ratio point increase in our current year loss ratio was driven by net losses incurred on Hurricanes Ike and Gustav of $281 million. Other catastrophe losses in 2008, which included flood, hail and tornado losses in the U.S., an earthquake in China and storms in Australia, were broadly in line with our annual expectations for such losses. This was similar to 2007, which included a number of mid-sized catastrophes, including Windstorm Kyrill and flooding and storm damage in Australia and U.K.
Our initial expected loss ratios in 2008 were mostly higher than in 2007, reflecting the impact of pricing deterioration across many of our lines of business. The impact of this was partially offset by the incorporation of more of our own historical loss experience in our loss picks, which has generally been better than the industry benchmarks that we also incorporate. During 2008, we increased the expected loss ratios on our credit and bond lines of business, relative to 2007, to reflect increased loss activity within the deteriorating economic environment.
2007 versus 2006
The 2.6 ratio point in our current year loss ratio in 2007 mostly reflected changes in business mix. We experienced a shift towards liability business, which typically has a higher initial expected loss ratio compared to our other lines. Although there was a higher incidence of mid-sized catastrophes in 2007, as noted above, our exposure to these events did not have a substantial impact on our total estimated current year losses relative to 2006.
Prior period reserve development:
2008 Net Loss Development
We experienced net favorable prior period reserve development in 2008 of $174 million, or 11.6 ratio points, the principal movements of which were as follows:
•
$162 million of net favorable prior period reserve development on our property ($84 million) and catastrophe lines of business ($78 million). This development was generated from accident years 2007 ($62 million), 2006 ($46 million), 2005 ($28 million) and 2004 and prior ($26 million).
•
$10 million of favorable prior period reserve development on our accident year 2007 and 2006 crop reserves.
•
Net favorable development of $11 million from our professional lines business. This was driven by favorable development of $25 million on accident years 2003 and 2004, partially offset by adverse development on accident year 2007.
•
$7 million adverse development on our accident year 2003 liability reserves related to higher than expected loss emergence on a stop loss contract.
•
Net adverse development of $4 million on our credit and bond lines of business, largely from accident year 2007, and reflecting the increased potential for loss in the deteriorating economic environment.
2007 Net Loss Development
We experienced net favorable prior period reserve development in 2007 of $123 million, or 8.1 ratio points, the principal movements of which were as follows:
•
$104 million of net favorable prior period reserve development on our catastrophe ($78 million) and property lines of business ($26 million). This development was primarily generated from accident years 2006 ($94 million).
•
$14 million of favorable prior period reserve development on our accident year 2005 and 2006 crop reserves.
2006 Net Loss Development
We experienced net favorable prior period reserve development in 2006 of $49 million, or 3.5 points, the principal movements of which were as follows:
•
$62 million of net favorable prior period reserve development on our catastrophe line of business, the majority of which was generated from accident year 2004.
•
$6 million of net adverse development on our property lines of business, represented by $40 million of adverse development on accident year 2005, partially offset by favorable development on accident years 2004 and prior. The adverse development on accident year 2005 was related to KRW reserve strengthening in connection with claim deterioration on our pro-rata line.
•
$6 million favorable development on our accident year 2004 crop reserves.
•
Adverse development of $9 million on our accident year 2004 and 2005 motor liability lines of business due to higher than expected loss emergence.
Refer to “Prior Period Reserve Development” within our Group Underwriting Results, above, for discussion on the underlying reasons for these movements.
2009 Reinsurance Segment Outlook
Our 2009 treaty reinsurance renewals are progressing well and we are satisfied with the quality, diversity and balance of the portfolio we reassembled at January 1, 2009. Typically, approximately 50% of our reinsurance gross premiums written within any calendar year renews on this date. Although we have not yet finalized all the business we expect to bind, we anticipate that our first quarter treaty reinsurance renewals in 2009 will represent over 11% growth in premium relative to the same period in 2008.
Driving the growth was our credit and bond reinsurance business in Continental Europe and our U.S. professional liability and general casualty reinsurance business. We were able to gain strategic share on attractive treaties due to concerns over the financial strength of distressed reinsurers, particularly for U.S. casualty reinsurance business. The credit and bond reinsurance market in Continental Europe experienced significant dislocation at renewal and we were able to consolidate our position at our required pricing and terms.
Outside of the U.S., European and Caribbean property catastrophe placement were up approximately 5% but all other non-U.S. geographies were down. In the U.S. property catastrophe market, small regional covers with no loss experience renewed flat to up modestly. Larger regional and super regional placements saw rate increases closer to 10% and more if loss-affected. Nationwide placements or placements with heavier southeast exposures were up 15% to 20% and even more in some cases. We believe several of these major placements did not get fully placed. The number of shortfall covers and private deals that seemed to abound in the market was a very good indication of relative market discipline and a lack of new capacity. We believe that rates will continue to strengthen in peak zones. We have also observed some upward movement in U.S. earthquake driven property catastrophe treaties in January 2009. Continued dislocations in the Florida market are likely to add more upward pressure on pricing for Florida exposed risk. Overall, our property catastrophe reinsurance premium was relatively stable at the January 1, 2009 versus the prior year. However, we reduced our exposure to European windstorm due to the less attractive risk-reward profile relative to other peak zones. More broadly, we are also attaching higher in a number of programs.
NET INVESTMENT INCOME AND NET REALIZED INVESTMENT GAINS/LOSSES
Overview of the Financial Crisis
During the latter part of 2007 and into 2008, there has been a slowdown in the global economy precipitated primarily by increased defaults on sub-prime mortgages in the U.S. and elsewhere, falling house prices and contracting consumer spending. The significant increase in default rates negatively impacted the value of mortgage backed securities held by foreign and domestic institutions. The defaults have led to a corresponding increase in foreclosures, which have driven down house values, resulting in additional losses in mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities. During the current year, the credit markets deteriorated dramatically, as evidenced by widening credit spreads and reduced availability of credit. Many financial institutions experienced liquidity crises due to immediate demands for deposit withdrawals or collateral, combined with falling asset values and their inability to sell assets or meet the increased demands. As a result, several financial institutions have failed or been acquired at distressed prices, while others have received financial assistance from the U.S. government to continue operations. The liquidity crisis significantly increased the spreads on certain fixed maturities and, at the same time, had a dramatic negative impact on the global stock markets. As described in more detail below, these events had a material negative impact on our net investment income and net realized gains/losses in 2008.
In recent months, we have witnessed unprecedented global government interventions to stabilize the financial markets and restore credit availability, liquidity and confidence. We have also witnessed a coordinated global action to significantly reduce short-term interest rates. Although these actions are intended to stimulate inter-bank lending and the commercial paper markets in order to bring an end to the current credit crisis, there is no assurance that these actions will be effective. Accordingly, our investment results and investment portfolio could continue to be materially and adversely impacted in the near term. For further analysis of these market risks, refer to Item 7A
ITEM 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURE ABOUT MARKET RISK
Our Balance Sheets include a substantial amount of assets and, to a lesser extent, liabilities whose fair values are subject to market risks. Market risk represents the potential for an economic loss due to adverse changes in the fair value of a financial instrument. We are principally exposed to four types of market related risk: interest rate risk, credit spread risk, equity price risk and foreign currency risk.
The following provides a sensitivity analysis on the potential effects that market risk exposures could have on the future earnings, fair values or cash flows of our material financial instruments, resulting from one or more selected hypothetical changes in market rates or prices over a selected time. The hypothetical changes below reflect what we consider as being reasonably possible near-term changes in market rates and prices. “Near-term” means a period of time going forward up to one year from the date of the consolidated financial statements. The hypothetical changes do not reflect what could be deemed the best or worst case scenarios.
INTEREST RATE RISK
Fluctuations in interest rates have a direct impact on the market valuation of our fixed maturities. As interest rates rise, the fair value of our fixed maturities falls, and the converse is also true. We have calculated the effect that an immediate parallel shift in the U.S. interest rate yield curve would have on our fixed maturities at December 31, 2008. The modeling of this effect was performed on each security individually using the security’s effective duration and changes in prepayment expectations for MBS and ABS securities. Prepayment risk results from potential accelerated principal payments that shorten the average life, and therefore the expected yield of the security. The results of this analysis are summarized in the table below.
We manage interest rate risk by selecting fixed maturities with durations, yields, currency and liquidity tailored to the anticipated cash outflow characteristics of our insurance and reinsurance liabilities. Refer to ‘Cash and Investments’ section above, for a discussion of target and actual durations on our investment portfolios and a discussion on risk management techniques, respectively.
EQUITY PRICE RISK
Our portfolio of equity securities, which we carry on our balance sheet at fair value, has exposure to price risk. This risk is defined as the potential loss in fair value resulting from adverse changes in stock prices. Our global equity portfolio is correlated with the MFCI World Free index and changes in that index would approximate the impact on our portfolio. The fair value of our equity securities at December 31, 2008 was $107 million. The impact of a 20% decline in the overall market prices of our equity exposures is $21 million, on a pre-tax basis.
Our hedge funds have significant exposure to equity strategies with net long positions that have been impacted by the negative returns in this sector during 2008. The impact of a 15% decline in the fair value of our hedge funds at December 31, 2008 is $38 million, on a pre-tax basis.
CREDIT SPREAD RISK
Fluctuations in credit spreads have a direct impact on the market valuation of our fixed maturities. A credit spread is the difference between the yield on the fixed maturity security of a particular borrower (or a class of borrowers with a specified credit rating) and the yield of similar maturity U.S. Treasury fixed maturity. As credit spreads widen, the fair value of our fixed maturities falls, and the converse is also true. The following table summarizes the effect of an immediate, parallel shift in credit spreads in a static interest rate environment at December 31, 2008:
As the performance of our credit funds are driven by the valuation of the underlying bank loans, these funds are also exposed to credit spreads movement. The impact of a 15% decline in the fair value of our credit funds at December 31, 2008 is $15 million, on a pre-tax basis.
FOREIGN CURRENCY RISK
Foreign exchange risk represents the risk of loss due to movements in foreign currency exchange rates. Through our subsidiaries and branches located in various foreign countries, we conduct our insurance and reinsurance operations in a variety of non-U.S. currencies. As our reporting currency is the U.S. dollar, fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates will have a direct impact on the valuation of our assets and liabilities denominated in local currencies.
We manage foreign currency risk by seeking to match our liabilities under insurance and reinsurance policies that are payable in foreign currencies with cash and investments that are denominated in such currencies. When necessary, we may also use derivatives to economically hedge un-matched foreign currency exposures, specifically forward contracts and currency options. Foreign currency forward contracts do not eliminate fluctuations in the value of our assets and liabilities denominated in foreign currencies but rather allow us to establish a rate of exchange for a future point in time. For further information on the accounting treatment of our foreign currency derivatives, refer to Item 8, Note 9, of the Consolidated Financial Statements.
The table below provides a summary of our net foreign currency risk exposure at December 31, 2008 and December 31, 2007, as well as foreign currency derivatives in place to manage this exposure:
(1)
Total currency derivative amount excludes short calls options (see Item 8, Note 9 “Derivative Instruments”) as a hypothetical 10% increase in the movement of the U.S. dollar would not have an impact on pre-tax income.
(2)
Assumes 10% change in U.S. dollar relative to the other currencies.
(1)
Assumes 10% change in U.S. dollar relative to the other currencies.
In late 2007, based on our macro economic views on the directional of the U.S. currency for 2008 we maintained a long position exposure to the Euro and Sterling currencies. During 2008, we began to reduce these currencies exposures through a hedging program (see Item 8, Note 9 “Derivative Instruments”). At December 31, 2008, we had a short exposure to the Euro currency in anticipation of additional premiums written denominated in Euro during the January 2009 reinsurance renewal, which will eliminate this short exposure.
For an analysis of the Value at Risk of our cash and investment portfolio at December 31, 2008 and 2007, refer to the “Enterprise Risk Management” section in Item 1.
ITEM 8.
ITEM 8. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA
REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM
To the Board of Directors and Shareholders of
AXIS Capital Holdings Limited
We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of AXIS Capital Holdings Limited and subsidiaries (the “Company”) as of December 31, 2008 and 2007, and the related consolidated statements of operations, comprehensive income, changes in shareholders’ equity, and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2008. These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the financial statements based on our audits.
We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States). Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. An audit also includes assessing the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.
In our opinion, such consolidated financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of AXIS Capital Holdings Limited and subsidiaries as of December 31, 2008 and 2007, and the results of their operations and their cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2008, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.
We have also audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States), the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2008, based on the criteria established in Internal Control - Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission and our report dated February 24, 2009 expressed an unqualified opinion on the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting.
/s/ Deloitte & Touche
Hamilton, Bermuda
February 24, 2009
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
DECEMBER 31, 2008 AND 2007
See accompanying notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS
YEARS ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
See accompanying notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME
YEARS ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
See accompanying notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CHANGES IN SHAREHOLDERS’ EQUITY
YEARS ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
See accompanying notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS
YEARS ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
See accompanying notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
1. History
AXIS Capital Holdings Limited (“AXIS Capital”) is the Bermuda-based holding company for the AXIS group of companies, collectively the “Company”. AXIS Capital was incorporated on December 9, 2002, under the laws of Bermuda. Through its subsidiaries and branches organized in Bermuda, Europe, Australia, Singapore, Canada and the United States, AXIS Capital provides a broad range of insurance and reinsurance products on a worldwide basis under two distinct global underwriting platforms, AXIS Insurance and AXIS Re. In these notes, the terms “we,” “us,” “our,” or the “Company” refer to AXIS Capital and its direct and indirect subsidiaries.
2. Significant Accounting Policies
The terms “FAS” and “FASB” used in these notes refer to Statements of Financial Accounting Standards issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, a United States based accounting standard setter. These consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (“U.S. GAAP”). All significant inter-company accounts and transactions have been eliminated.
The preparation of these consolidated financial statements requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amount of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the consolidated financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. The significant estimates reflected in our consolidated financial statements are:
•
reserve for losses and loss expenses;
•
reinsurance recoverable balances, including the provision for unrecoverable reinsurance;
•
premiums;
•
valuation of deferred tax assets;
•
other-than-temporary-impairments to the carrying value of available-for-sale investment securities; and
•
fair value measurement for certain fixed maturities, other investments and derivatives.
While the amounts included in the consolidated financial statements reflect management’s best estimates and assumptions, these amounts could ultimately differ from those estimates. Any such adjustments are reflected in income in the period in which they become known.
Certain reclassifications have been made to prior period amounts to conform to the current period presentation. Tabular dollars and share amounts are in thousands, except per share amounts. All amounts are reported in U.S. dollars. Our significant accounting policies are as follows.
a) Fair Value Measurements
Effective January 1, 2008, we partially adopted FAS 157, Fair Value Measurements (“FAS 157”), with no cumulative effect upon adoption. FAS 157 defines fair value as the price to sell an asset or transfer a liability (i.e. the “exit price”) in an orderly transaction between market participants. Additionally, FAS 157 establishes a hierarchy for inputs used in measuring fair value that maximizes the use of observable inputs and minimizes the use of unobservable inputs by requiring that the most observable inputs be used when available. The hierarchy is broken down into three levels based on the reliability of inputs as follows:
•
Level 1 - Valuations based on quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities that we have the ability to access. Valuation adjustments and block discounts are not applied to Level 1 instruments. Since valuations are based on quoted prices that are readily and regularly available in an active market, valuation of these products does not entail a significant degree of judgment.
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
2. Significant Accounting Policies (Continued)
Examples of assets and liabilities utilizing Level 1 inputs include: exchange-traded equity securities, U.S. Treasury securities, and listed derivatives that are actively traded.
•
Level 2 - Valuations based on quoted prices in active markets for similar assets or liabilities, quoted prices for identical assets or liabilities in inactive markets, or for which significant inputs are observable (e.g. interest rates, yield curves, prepayment speeds, default rates, loss severities, etc.) or can be corroborated by observable market data.
Examples of assets and liabilities utilizing Level 2 inputs include: exchange-traded equity securities and listed derivatives that are not actively traded; U.S. government-sponsored agency securities; non-U.S. government obligations; corporate and municipal bonds; mortgage-backed securities (“MBS”) and asset-backed securities (“ABS”); short-duration high yield fund, and over-the-counter (“OTC”) derivatives (e.g. foreign currency options and forward contracts).
•
Level 3 - Valuations based on inputs that are unobservable and significant to the overall fair value measurement. The unobservable inputs reflect our own assumptions about assumptions that market participants might use.
Examples of assets and liabilities utilizing Level 3 inputs include: insurance and reinsurance derivative contracts; hedge and credit funds with partial transparency; and collateralized loan obligation (“CLO”) - equity tranche securities that are traded in less liquid markets.
The availability of observable inputs can vary from financial instrument to financial instrument and is affected by a wide variety of factors, including, for example, the type of financial instrument, whether the financial instrument is new and not yet established in the marketplace, and other characteristics particular to the transaction. To the extent that valuation is based on models or inputs that are less observable or unobservable in the market, the determination of fair value requires significantly more judgment. Accordingly, the degree of judgment exercised by management in determining fair value is greatest for instruments categorized in Level 3. We use prices and inputs that are current as of the measurement date. In periods of market dislocation, the observability of prices and inputs may be reduced for many instruments. This condition could cause an instrument to be reclassified between levels.
In February 2008, the FASB issued FASB Staff Position (FSP) FAS 157-2, Effective Date of FASB Statement No. 157 (“FSP FAS 157-2”), which permits a one-year deferral of the application of FAS 157 for all non-financial assets and non-financial liabilities, except those that are recognized or disclosed at fair value in the financial statements on a recurring basis (at least annually). FSP FAS 157-2 is effective in conjunction with FAS 157 for interim and annual financial statements issued after January 1, 2008. Accordingly, we have not applied the provisions of FAS 157 to our goodwill and other intangible assets which are measured annually for impairment testing purposes only. We will adopt FSP FAS 157-2 on January 1, 2009, and do not anticipate this adoption will have a material impact on our results of operations, financial position or liquidity.
In October 2008, the FASB issued FSP FAS 157-3, Determining the Fair Value of a Financial Asset When the Market for That Asset is Not Active (“FSP FAS 157-3”), which clarifies the application of FAS 157 in a market that is not active. The key considerations highlighted in the FSP FAS 157-3 include the use of an entity’s own assumptions about future cash flows and appropriately risk-adjusted discount rates, appropriate risk adjustments for non-performance and liquidity risks, and the reliance that an entity should place on quotes that do not reflect the result of market transactions. FSP FAS 157-3 was effective upon issuance.
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
2. Significant Accounting Policies (Continued)
b) Investments
Investments available for sale
Investments that are considered “available for sale” as defined in FAS No. 115, Accounting for Certain Investments in Debt and Equity Securities (“FAS 115”), are reported at fair value at the balance sheet date.
We use quoted market values and other relevant observable market data provided by nationally recognized independent pricing sources (pricing services and broker-dealers) as inputs into our process for estimating fair values of our fixed maturities. When there is no available quoted market price in active markets, a pricing service will use a pricing matrix model to estimate fair value using the following significant inputs, which include reported trades, benchmark yields, broker-dealer quotes, bids, offers, credit risks and spreads, and prepayment speeds. When pricing is not available from pricing services, we obtain non-binding quotes from broker-dealers or prices from independent administrators. During times of market illiquidity, we exercise significant judgment in establishing fair values.
The fair value for our equities is based upon quoted market prices in active markets.
The net unrealized gain or loss on available-for-sale investments, net of tax, is included as accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) in shareholders’ equity, subject to an other-than-temporary impairment (“OTTI”) review. We assess quarterly whether declines in fair value of our available-for-sale investments represent impairments that are other than temporary. There are several factors that are considered in the assessment of a security, which include (i) the time period during which there has been a significant decline below cost, (ii) the extent of the decline below cost, (iii) our intent and ability to hold the security, (iv) the potential for the security to recover in value, (v) an analysis of the financial condition of the issuer and (vi) an analysis of the collateral structure and credit support of the security, if applicable. Where we have determined that there is an OTTI in the fair value of the security, the cost of the security is written down to the fair value and the unrealized loss at the time of the determination is charged to net realized investment gains (losses) in the Consolidated Statement of Operations. In January 2009, the FASB issued FASB FSP EITF 99-20-1, Amendments to the Impairment and Interest Income Measurement Guidance of EITF Issue No. 99-20, (“FSP EITF 99-20-1”) effective December 31, 2008. This FSP retains fair value as its measurement attribute for OTTI on securitized financial assets but it removes the market participant notion as required under EITF 99-20, Recognition of Interest Income and Impairment on Purchased Beneficial Interests and Beneficial Interests That Continue to be Held by a Transferor in Securitized Financial Assets, and it requires a probability assessment for adverse changes in cash flows consistent with the impairment model in FAS 115. We have adopted this FSP during our OTTI review for the December 31, 2008 valuation of our securitized financial assets.
Purchases and sales of investments are recorded on a trade date basis. Realized gains or losses on sales of investments are determined based on the specific identification method. Net investment income is recognized when earned and includes interest and dividend income together with amortization of market premiums and discounts using the effective yield method and is net of investment management fees and other expenses. For mortgage-backed securities and any other holdings for which there is a prepayment risk, prepayment assumptions are evaluated and revised as necessary. Any adjustments required due to the change in effective yields and maturities are recognized on a prospective basis through yield adjustments.
Other investments
We account for our other investments at fair value, with the change in fair value and realized gains and losses reported in net investment income.
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
2. Significant Accounting Policies (Continued)
For hedge, credit and short duration high yield funds, we measure fair value by obtaining the net asset value as advised by the external fund manager, or third party administrator. Certain of these funds have lock-up and other redemption provisions which limit our ability to liquidate these funds in the short term. As these contractual provisions are common in the alternative investment industry, we do not apply a discount factor to the reported net asset value.
For our investment in CLOs - equity tranche, we estimate fair value based on observable relevant trades in active secondary markets where available or the use of an internal valuation model where market is inactive. Our internal valuation model includes the following significant inputs: market default and recovery rates, collateral spreads, and prepayments. As some of these significant inputs cannot be corroborated with observable market data, the fair value estimation process is inherently more subjective. Income distribution from these CLOs is also reported in net investment income.
c) Cash and cash equivalents
Cash equivalents include money-market funds and fixed interest deposits placed with a maturity of under 90 days when purchased. Restricted cash and cash equivalents, which have been previously reported as part of cash and cash equivalents, are now separately reported in the Consolidated Balance Sheets at December 31, 2008 and 2007. Accordingly, changes in restricted cash and cash equivalents are now reported as an investing activity in our Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows for the years ended December 31, 2008, 2007 and 2006.
d) Premiums and Acquisition Costs
Premiums
Insurance premiums written are recorded in accordance with the terms of the underlying policies. For multi-year policies for which premiums are payable in annual installments, premiums written are recorded at the inception of the policy based on management’s best estimate of total premiums to be received. We do not include premiums for later periods during which the insured/reinsured has the ability to unilaterally commute or cancel coverage. Reinsurance premiums are recorded at the inception of the policy and are estimated based upon information received from ceding companies. Any subsequent differences arising on insurance and reinsurance premium estimates are recorded in the period they are determined.
Insurance and reinsurance premiums are earned over the terms of the policies in proportion to the risks to which they relate. Unearned premiums represent the portion of premiums written that is applicable to the unexpired portion of the policies in force.
Reinstatement premiums for our insurance and reinsurance operations are recognized at the time a loss event occurs, where coverage limits for the remaining life of the contract are reinstated under pre-defined contract terms and earned on a pro-rata basis over the remaining risk period. The accrual of reinstatement premiums is based on an estimate of losses and loss adjustment expenses, which reflects management’s judgment, as described in Note 2 (f) below.
Acquisition costs
Acquisition costs, which comprise primarily of fees and commissions paid to brokers and taxes, vary with and are directly related to the acquisition of policies. Acquisition costs are shown net of commissions earned on ceded business. These net costs are deferred and amortized over the periods in which the related premiums are earned. As part of our premium deficiency analysis, deferred acquisition costs are reviewed to determine if they are recoverable from future income, including investment income. If such costs are estimated to be unrecoverable, they are expensed.
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
2. Significant Accounting Policies (Continued)
e) Reinsurance
In the normal course of business, we seek to reduce the loss that may arise from events that could cause unfavorable underwriting results by reinsuring certain levels of risk in various lines of business with other reinsurers. Reinsurance premiums ceded are expensed over the period the reinsurance coverage is provided. Prepaid reinsurance premiums represent the portion of premiums ceded on the unexpired term of the policies in force. Reinstatement premiums ceded are recorded at the time a loss event occurs where coverage limits for the remaining life of a contract are reinstated under pre-defined contract terms and are expensed over the remaining risk period.
Reinsurance recoverables are based on contracts in force and are presented net of a reserve for uncollectible reinsurance. The method for determining the reinsurance recoverable on unpaid losses and loss expenses involves actuarial estimates of unpaid losses and loss expenses as well as a determination of our ability to cede unpaid losses and loss expenses under our reinsurance treaties.
The reserve for uncollectible reinsurance is based on an estimate of the amount of the reinsurance recoverable balance that will ultimately not be recovered due to reinsurer insolvency, contractual disputes or some other reason. The valuation of this reserve includes several processes, including a review of case-specific allowances for coverage issues and a default analysis based on the financial strength rating of the reinsurers. These factors require considerable management judgment and the factors are reviewed in detail on a regular basis with any resulting adjustments reflected in losses and loss expenses in our Consolidated Statement of Operations in the period that collection issues are identified.
f) Losses and Loss Expenses
Reserves for losses and loss expenses are established by management and represent an estimate of the total cost of claims that are reported but not yet paid (“case reserves”) and the anticipated cost of claims incurred but not reported (“IBNR”).
For reported losses, management primarily establishes case reserves based on amounts reported from insureds or ceding companies. Management may also establish additional case reserves on claims reported which are not considered adequately reserved. Case reserves are established on a case by case basis within the parameters of coverage provided in the insurance and reinsurance contracts. Our general IBNR reserves are calculated by projecting our ultimate losses on each class of business and subtracting paid losses and case reserves. Unlike case reserve, IBNR is generally calculated at an aggregate level and cannot usually be directly identified as reserves for a particular loss or contract.
Within our reserving process, management utilizes the initial expected loss ratio method (“IELR”), Bornhuetter-Ferguson (“BF”) and chain ladder actuarial methods. The IELR method calculates an estimate of ultimate losses by applying an estimated loss ratio to an estimate of ultimate earned premium for each underwriting year. The estimated loss ratio is based on pricing information and industry data and is independent of the current claim experience to date. The BF method uses as a starting point an assumed IELR and blends in the loss ratio implied by the claims experience to date by using benchmark loss development. This method uses actual loss data and the historical development profiles on older accident years to project more recent, less developed years to their ultimate position. The basis of our selected single point best estimate on a particular line of business is often a blend of the results from two or more methods (e.g. weighted averages). Our estimate is highly dependent on management’s judgment as to which method(s) is most appropriate for a particular accident year and class of business. Our methodology changes over time as new information emerges regarding underlying loss activity and other data issues.
Management also performs an analysis of additional factors to be considered when establishing our IBNR, intended to enhance our best estimate beyond quantitative techniques and reflect uncertainties specific to our business. These uncertainties may vary over time, but generally contemplate matters such as the timing and emergence of claims or short term market trends.
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
2. Significant Accounting Policies (Continued)
While we believe that our reserves for losses and loss expenses are sufficient to pay losses that fall within the coverages we provide, actual losses and loss expenses may be materially greater or less than the reserve provided. Our losses and loss expense reserves are reviewed quarterly, and any adjustments are reflected in earnings in the period in which they become known.
g) Foreign Currency Transactions
Our functional currency is the U.S. dollar. We remeasure monetary assets and liabilities denominated in foreign currencies at year end exchange rates, with the resulting foreign exchange gains and losses recognized in the Consolidated Statements of Operations. Revenues and expenses in foreign currencies are converted at average exchange rates during the year. In the case of foreign currency denominated fixed maturity investments, the change in exchange rates between the local currency and our functional currency at each balance sheet date represents an unrealized appreciation or depreciation in value of these securities, and is included as a component of accumulated other comprehensive income.
h) Stock-Based Compensation
Effective January 1, 2006, we adopted FAS No. 123 (revised 2004), Share Based Payment (“FAS No. 123(R)”) using the modified prospective approach, resulting in no significant impact on net income and basic and diluted earnings per share for 2006. We determine the fair value of the stock-based award at the date of grant and recognized the share-based compensation expense over the period the award is earned by the employee, net of our best estimate of forfeiture benefits.
i) Derivative Instruments
Derivative Instruments not Designated as Hedging Instruments
We may enter into derivative instruments such as futures, options, interest rate swaps and foreign currency forward contracts as part of our overall foreign currency risk management strategy or to obtain exposure to a particular financial market and for yield enhancement. From time to time we may enter into insurance and reinsurance contracts that meet the definition of a derivative contract under FAS No. 133, Accounting for Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities (“FAS 133”).
We measure all derivative instruments at fair value (see above (a) Fair Value Measurements) and recognize as either assets or liabilities in the Consolidated Balance Sheets. We record the change in fair value and realized gains or losses on derivative instruments in the Consolidated Statements of Operations.
Derivative Instruments Designated as Hedging Instruments
We may designate a currency derivative as a hedge on the fair value of certain investment portfolios attributable to changes in foreign currency exchange rates. This is referred to as a fair value hedge. Changes in the fair value of a derivative that is designated and qualifies as a fair value hedge, along with the changes in the fair value of the hedged asset or liability that is attributable to the hedged risk, are recorded in net realized investment gains (losses), including any hedge ineffectiveness.
To qualify for hedge accounting treatment, a derivative must be highly effective in mitigating the designated changes in value of the hedged item. Further, the hedge relationship must be designated and formally documented at the inception, detailing the particular risk management objective and strategy for the hedge, including the item and risk that is being hedged, the derivative that is being used, and how effectiveness is being assessed. We formally measure the hedge
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
2. Significant Accounting Policies (Continued)
effectiveness both at the inception and on an ongoing basis. We evaluate the effectiveness of our designated hedges on a retrospective and prospective basis using the period-to-period dollar offset method. Using this method, if the hedge correlation is within the range of 80% to 125%, we consider the hedge effective and apply hedge accounting.
j) Intangible Assets
In accordance with FAS No. 142, Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets, we classify intangible assets into three categories: (1) intangible assets with finite lives subject to amortization, (2) intangible assets with indefinite lives not subject to amortization, and (3) goodwill. For intangible assets with finite lives, we amortize the value of the assets over their useful lives. The estimated remaining useful lives for these assets range from 3 to 11 years. We also test assets for impairment if conditions exist that indicate the carrying value may not be recoverable. Such conditions may include an economic downturn in a geographic market or change in the assessment of future operations. We record an impairment charge when the carrying value of the finite lived intangible assets is not recoverable by the cash flows generated from the use of the asset.
We do not amortize identifiable intangible assets with indefinite lives and goodwill. We test these intangible assets and goodwill for impairment on a yearly basis, or whenever changes in circumstances warrant an analysis of the recoverability of these assets. If we determine that an impairment exists, we adjust the carrying value of these assets to fair value and record the impairment charge in income.
k) Taxation
We have certain subsidiaries which operate in jurisdictions where they are subject to taxation. Current and deferred income taxes are provided based upon enacted tax laws and rates applicable in the relevant jurisdictions. Deferred income taxes are provided on all temporary differences between the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities for financial reporting purposes and the amounts used for income tax purposes. A valuation allowance against deferred tax assets is recorded when our assessment indicates that it is more likely than not that a portion of the deferred tax asset will not be realized in the foreseeable future. On January 1, 2007, we adopted the provisions of FASB Interpretation No. 48, “Accounting for Uncertainty in Income Taxes - An Interpretation of FASB Statement No. 109” (“FIN 48”). Under FIN 48, the tax benefits of uncertain tax positions may only be recognized when the position is more-likely-than-not to be sustained upon audit by the relevant taxing authorities.
l) Treasury Shares
Treasury shares are common shares repurchased by our Company and not subsequently cancelled. These shares are recorded at cost and result in a reduction of our shareholders’ equity in the Consolidated Balance Sheets.
m) Other New Accounting Standards Adopted in 2008
Business Combinations and Noncontrolling Interests
In December 2008, we have adopted FAS No. 141(R), Business Combinations (“FAS 141(R)”) and FAS No. 160, Noncontrolling Interests in Consolidated Financial Statements - an amendment of Accounting Research Bulletin No. 51 (“FAS 160”). SFAS 141(R) requires the acquiring entity in a business combination to recognize the full fair value of assets acquired and liabilities assumed in the transaction (whether a full or partial acquisition); establishes the acquisition-date fair value as the measurement objective for all assets acquired and liabilities assumed; requires expensing of most transaction and restructuring costs; and requires the acquirer to provide additional disclosures on the nature and financial
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
2. Significant Accounting Policies (Continued)
effect of the business combination. FAS 141(R) applies to all transactions or other events in which the acquirer obtains control of one or more businesses, even if control is not obtained by purchasing equity interests or net assets. FAS 160 requires reporting entities to present noncontrolling (minority) interests as equity (as opposed to as a liability or mezzanine equity) and provides guidance on the accounting for transactions between an entity and noncontrolling interests. FAS 141(R) will apply to our recent acquisition of the business and operations of the managing general agent Dexta Corporation Pty Ltd (“Dexta”) which closed in January 2009. We do not expect this revised accounting pronouncement will have a material impact to our results of operations, financial condition or liquidity.
Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities
We early adopted FAS No. 161, Disclosures about Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities-an amendment of FASB Statement No. 133 (“FAS 161”), which was issued in March 2008. This Statement expands the disclosure requirements of FAS 133 and requires the reporting entity to provide enhanced disclosures about the objectives and strategies for using derivative instruments, quantitative disclosures about fair values and amounts of gains and losses on derivative contracts, and credit-risk related contingent features in derivative agreements.
Credit Derivatives and Guarantee Disclosures
We early adopted FASB Staff Position No. FAS 133-1 and FIN 45-4, Disclosures about Credit Derivatives and Certain Guarantees: An Amendment of FASB Statement No. 133 and FASB Interpretation No. 45; and Clarification of the Effective Date of FASB Statement No. 161, which was issued in September 2008. This Staff Position amends FAS 133 to require a seller of credit derivatives, including credit derivatives embedded in hybrid instruments, to provide certain disclosures for each credit derivative (or group of similar credit derivatives) for each balance sheet presented. These disclosures must be provided even if the likelihood of having to make payments is remote. This FSP also amends FIN 45 to require additional disclosure about the current status of the payment/performance relating to the guarantee. At December 31, 2008, we did not have any credit derivatives or guarantees as defined in FIN 45.
Transfers of Financial Assets and Interests in VIEs
We adopted FASB Staff Position No. FAS 140-4 and FIN 46(R)-8, Disclosures by Public Entities (Enterprises) about Transfers of Financial Assets and Interests in Variable Interest Entities, effective for our calendar year ended December 31, 2008. This Staff Position requires additional disclosures and applies to transferors, sponsors, services, primary beneficiaries, and holders of significant variable interests in a variable interest entity (VIE) or qualifying special purpose entity (QSPE). Refer to Note 9 for additional disclosures provided in relation to our significant implicit variable interest in the SPE associated with our insurance derivative contract.
n) Recently Issued Accounting Policies Not Yet Adopted
Determination of the Useful Life of Intangible Assets
In April 2008, the FASB issued FSP No. FAS 142-3, Determination of the Useful Life of Intangible Assets (“FSP FAS 142-3”). FSP FAS 142-3 amends the factors considered in developing assumptions used to determine the useful life of an intangible asset under FAS No. 142, Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets (“FAS 142”). The intent of FSP FAS 142-3 is to improve the consistency between the useful life of a recognized intangible asset under FAS 142 and the period of expected cash flows used to measure the fair value of the asset under FAS 141(R) and other applicable accounting literature. FSP FAS 142-3 is effective for financial statements issued for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2008, and must be applied prospectively to intangible assets acquired after the effective date. We adopted FSP FAS 142-3 on January 1, 2009, and we do not anticipate this will have a material impact on our results of operations, financial condition or liquidity.
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
2. Significant Accounting Policies (Continued)
Financial Guarantee Insurance Contracts
In May 2008, the FASB issued FAS No. 163, Accounting for Financial Guarantee Insurance Contracts (“FAS 163”). This new standard clarifies how FAS No. 60, Accounting and Reporting by Insurance Enterprises, applies to financial guarantee insurance contracts issued by insurance enterprises, including the recognition and measurement of premium revenue and claim liabilities. It also requires expanded disclosures about financial guarantee insurance contracts. FAS 163 is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2008, and all interim periods within those fiscal years, except for disclosures about the insurance enterprise’s risk-management activities, which was effective for our quarter ended September 30, 2008. We adopted FAS 163 on January 1, 2009. The applicability of FAS 163 to our existing insurance contracts requires significant judgment and based on our interpretation of its scope this adoption will not have a material impact on our results of operations, financial position or liquidity.
Earnings Per Share
In June 2008, the FASB issued FSP EITF 03-6-1, Determining Whether Instruments Granted in Share-Based Payment Transactions Are Participating Securities (“FSP EITF 03-6-1”). FSP EITF 03-6-1 provides additional guidance in the calculation of earnings per share under FAS No. 128, Earnings Per Share, and requires unvested share-based payment awards that contain non-forfeitable rights to dividends or dividend equivalents (whether paid or unpaid) to be included in the computation of earnings per share pursuant to the two-class method. FSP EITF 03-6-1 is effective beginning January 1, 2009, and we do not expect this will have a material impact to our financial statements upon adoption.
3. Segment Information
Our underwriting operations are organized around our two global underwriting platforms, AXIS Insurance and AXIS Re and therefore we have determined that we have two reportable segments, insurance and reinsurance. Except for goodwill and intangible assets, we do not allocate our assets by segment as we evaluate the underwriting results of each segment separately from the results of our investment portfolio.
Insurance
Our insurance segment provides insurance coverage on a worldwide basis. The product lines in this segment are property, marine, terrorism, aviation, credit and political risk, professional lines, liability and other.
Reinsurance
Our reinsurance segment provides treaty and facultative property and casualty reinsurance to insurance companies on a worldwide basis. The product lines in this segment are catastrophe, property, professional liability, credit and bond, motor, liability, engineering and other.
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
3. Segment Information (Continued)
The following tables summarize the underwriting results of our operating segments for the last three years and the carrying values of goodwill and intangible assets:
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
3. Segment Information (Continued)
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
3. Segment Information (Continued)
The following table presents our gross premiums written by the geographical location of our subsidiaries:
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
3. Segment Information (Continued)
The following table presents our net premiums earned by segment and line of business:
4. Goodwill and Intangible Assets
The following table shows an analysis of goodwill and intangible assets:
In 2007, we acquired the assets and operations of the Media Professional Division of MPI Insurance Agency, Inc., which resulted in recording $24 million and $10 million of goodwill and intangible assets with a finite life, respectively.
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
5. Investments
a) Fixed Maturities and Equities
The amortized cost or cost and fair values of our fixed maturities and equities were as follows:
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
5. Investments (Continued)
The following tables summarize fixed maturities and equities in an unrealized loss position and the aggregate fair value and gross unrealized loss by length of time the security has continuously been in an unrealized loss position:
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
5. Investments (Continued)
The following summarizes the credit ratings of our fixed maturities:
* Ratings as assigned by Standard & Poor’s (“S&P”)
The contractual maturities of our fixed maturities are shown below. Actual maturities may differ from contractual maturities because borrowers may have the right to call or prepay obligations with or without call or prepayment penalties.
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
5. Investments (Continued)
Insurance enhanced bonds
At December 31, 2008, we held insurance enhanced bonds (mortgage-backed, asset-backed and municipal securities), in the amount of approximately $215 million, which represented approximately 2.4% of our total invested assets. If we exclude the insurance enhancement, the overall credit quality of our insured bond portfolio was an average rating of “Aa2” by Moody’s. The financial guarantors of our $215 million of insurance enhanced bonds include Financial Security Assurance Inc. ($72 million), Ambac Financial Group, Inc. ($60 million), and MBIA Insurance Corporation ($70 million). We do not have any significant investments in companies which guarantee securities at December 31, 2008.
Other-than-temporary impairments (“OTTI”)
At December 31, 2008, 1202 fixed maturities (2007: 1,440) were in an unrealized loss position with a fair value of $3,434 million (2007: $2,718 million) of which 266 securities (2007: 1,065) have been in continuous unrealized loss position for 12 months or greater and have a fair value of $702 million (2007: $1,422 million). In 2008, we incurred OTTI charges of $71 million (2007: $9 million; 2006: $5 million) relating to fixed maturities. These charges primarily emanated from the financial institutions sector, including $32 million relating to Lehman Brothers corporate bonds. Based on our qualitative and quantitative OTTI review of each asset class within our fixed maturity portfolio, the remaining unrealized losses on fixed maturities at December 31, 2008, were primarily due to widening of credit spreads relating to the market illiquidity, rather than credit events. Because we have the ability and intent to hold these securities until a recovery of fair value to amortized cost, we currently believe it is probable that we will collect all amounts due according to their respective contractual terms. Therefore we do not consider these fixed maturities to be other-than-temporarily impaired at December 31, 2008.
In 2008, we recorded an OTTI charge for two equity securities in the amount of $7 million (2007 and 2006: nil). The valuation for the remaining equity securities which are below cost is believed to be correlated with the volatility in the equity markets that existed at December 31, 2008. The majority of our equity securities that were priced at less than 80% of cost were for a period of less than three months. We do not consider the remaining equities with an unrealized loss position to be other-than-temporarily impaired at December 31, 2008, as we have the ability and intent to hold these securities for a reasonable period of time until a recovery of fair value to cost.
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
5. Investments (Continued)
b) Other Investments
The table below shows our portfolio of other investments:
The movement in our hedge funds and credit funds in the year reflect net subscriptions of $47 million and $57 million, respectively, offset by a decrease in fair value of $73 million and $150 million, respectively.
c) Net Investment Income
Net investment income was derived from the following sources:
Net investment income on our other investments includes interest, dividend income, income distributions, and net realized and unrealized gains and losses. During 2008, we recorded net realized losses on our other investments of $42 million (2007: $4 million and 2006: nil).
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
5. Investments (Continued)
The following provides an analysis of gross and net realized gains/losses and the change in unrealized gains/losses on investments included within accumulated other comprehensive loss:
Proceeds from sales of fixed maturities classified as available for sale were $10,027 million, $6,755 million and $4,436 million in 2008, 2007 and 2006 respectively. The gross realized losses include OTTI charges of $78 million (2007: $9 million, 2006: $5 million).
d) Securities Lending
We participate in a securities lending program whereby our securities, which are included in investments, are loaned to third parties, primarily major brokerage firms for short periods of time through a lending agent. We maintain control over the securities loaned, retain the earnings and cash flows associated with the loaned securities and receive a fee from the borrower for the temporary use of the securities. Collateral in the form of cash, government securities and letters of credit is required at a rate of 102.0% of the fair value of the loaned securities and is monitored and maintained by the lending agent. At December 31, 2008, we had $406 million (2007: $848 million) in securities on loan. We consider our securities lending activities to be non-cash investing and financing activities. As a response to current market conditions, we are currently winding down this lending program to reduce our counterparty credit risk.
e) Restricted Investments
We are required to maintain assets on deposit with various regulatory authorities to support our insurance and reinsurance operations. The assets on deposit are available to settle insurance and reinsurance liabilities. We also utilize trust accounts to collateralize business with our insurance and reinsurance counterparties. These trust accounts generally take the place of letter of credit requirements. The assets in trust as collateral are primarily highly rated fixed maturity securities. The fair value of our restricted assets was as follows:
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
6. Fair Value Measurements
a) Fair Value Hierarchy
At December 31, 2008, we classified our financial instruments measured at fair value on a recurring basis in the following valuation hierarchy:
b) Level 3 Financial Instruments
The following table presents changes in Level 3 for our financial instruments measured at fair value on a recurring basis for the year ended December 31, 2008:
(1) Included in net investment income.
(2) Included in other insurance income (loss).
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
6. Fair Value Measurements (continued)
Other Investments
Hedge funds, credit funds and equity tranches of CLOs are included within Level 3. The fair value for hedge funds and credit funds are based on the reported net asset value as advised by the external fund manager or third party administrator. For these funds we do not have full access to the underlying investment holdings to enable us to corroborate the fair value measurement used by the fund managers. However, we regularly review performance directly with the fund managers and perform qualitative analysis to corroborate the reasonableness of the net asset values.
Observable equity tranche CLO trades in the secondary markets are infrequent, particularly given the illiquidity in the current credit markets. Accordingly, because we were unable to corroborate non-binding quotes from brokers with observable market data, we continued using our internal valuation model based on our assumptions with respect to the expected future cash flows and risk-adjusted discount rates. These include current market inputs such as default and recovery rates, collateral spread, and prepayments. Of these assumptions, the default rate is the most subjective and judgmental input. The current market default rate of approximately 4% (as reported by S&P for speculative-grade securities) is lower than the average default rates assumed in our models; however, we currently believe that a market participant would adjust the current default rates to our assumed average default rates over the life of our CLOs.
Derivative Liability
We classified our indemnity contract with longevity risk exposure (see Note 9) within Level 3 due to the use of significant unobservable inputs in our internal valuation model for estimating its fair value. To determine the potential indemnity payment on the insured Note (as defined in Note 9), we reviewed all the cash flows relating to the SPE, the issuer and collateral for the insured Note. The estimated indemnity payment with an appropriate risk margin, net of our contractual premiums for providing the indemnity, are then discounted using the risk free yield curve, adjusted for counterparties’ credit risk.
The most significant and subjective inputs in our valuation model are:
•
the timing of the receipt of death benefits as well as the amount of premiums to be paid to maintain the policies in force, both of which are directly correlated to life expectancy assumptions for a portfolio of 188 lives;
•
the proceeds of selling the unmatured life settlement contracts in 2017; and
•
the risk margin that a market participant would require for providing this indemnity.
From the inception of our insurance policy to December 31, 2008, we observed that the actual experience for the above portfolio was lagging our expectations. This lag contributed $53 million to the increase of the derivative liability balance at December 31, 2008 from December 31, 2007, which was partially offset by $12 million of favorable movements in interest rates and credit spreads as well as other items.
We exercised significant judgment in estimating the fair value of our indemnity contract; accordingly, the actual indemnity payment, if any, may differ materially from the $63 million derivative liability recorded at December 31, 2008.
c) Fair Values of Financial Instruments
The carrying amount of financial assets and liabilities presented on the Consolidated Balance Sheets as at December 31, 2008 and 2007 are equal to their fair value with the exception of senior notes. Senior notes are recorded at amortized cost with a carrying value of $499,368 (2007: $499,261) and a fair value of $415,000 (2007: $501,815).
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
7. Reserve for Losses and Loss Expenses
Our reserve for losses and loss expenses comprise the following:
The following table represents a reconciliation of our beginning and ending net losses and loss expense reserves:
We write business with loss experience generally characterized as low frequency and high severity in nature, which results in volatility in our financial results. In 2008, we incurred net loss and loss expenses of $408 million relating to Hurricanes Ike and Gustav. Our estimate at December 31, 2008 was primarily based on reported loss information from our clients, brokers and loss adjusters, supplemented by our review of in-force contracts, the output of industry models and a market share analyses. Industry-wide insured losses and our own loss estimates for Hurricanes Gustav and Ike are subject to change as claims continue to be reported and adjusted. Actual losses may ultimately differ materially from current loss estimates.
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
7. Reserve for Losses and Loss Expenses (Continued)
Net loss and loss expenses incurred include net favorable prior period reserve development of $376 million, $337 million and $217 million for the years ended December 31, 2008, 2007 and 2006, respectively. Prior period development arises from changes to loss estimates recognized in the current year that relate to loss reserves first reported in previous calendar years. The table below summarizes net favorable prior period reserve development by segment:
Net favorable prior period reserve development in each of the last three years was primarily generated from the property, marine, terrorism and aviation lines of our insurance segment and the property and catastrophe lines of our reinsurance segment. The favorable development reflects the recognition of better than expected loss emergence rather than explicit changes to our actuarial assumptions.
In 2008, we also recorded $65 million of net favorable prior period development on the credit and political risk lines in our insurance segment. This was primarily generated from our credit related classes, partially in recognition of lower than expected loss activity and also due to adopting a more accelerated loss development profile on these lines. We also recognized favorable prior period reserve development from our traditional political risk book of business from accident years 2004 and prior.
We recorded favorable reserve development of $57 million on our accident year 2003 and 2004 professional lines business in 2008, of which $32 million was generated from our insurance segment and $25 million from our reinsurance segment. The favorable development was due to the fact that we began to incorporate more of our own claims experience into our loss ratios, with less weighting on our initial expected loss ratios derived from industry benchmarks. We believe that for these more mature accident years, for this claims-made line of business, our loss experience is sufficiently developed, and therefore more statistically reliable.
In 2008, we also recorded adverse development of $48 million on our accident year 2007 professional lines reserves. During the year, a number of large financial institutions incurred significant financial losses and, in some cases, bankruptcy precipitated by the continued deterioration in the U.S. sub-prime residential mortgage market and the ensuing dislocation in the credit markets. These market driven events triggered claims against directors and officers of impacted institutions as well as providers of professional services of these institutions. As part of our reserving process, we considered the potential impact of market events on our financial institutions insurance portfolio. This included a review for exposure to known notifications of potential loss, as well as a review of accounts that may have exposure in this area, but have not yet provided notice of a claim. We also performed a similar review in our reinsurance segment, where potential exposure primarily exists within financial institution classes underwritten by our cedants. As a result, we strengthened our accident year 2007 reserves by $37 million in our insurance segment and by $11 million in our reinsurance segment. Although our reserves provide for potential future deterioration in our exposure to the credit crisis, while the crisis prevails and as new information is reported, actual losses may ultimately differ materially from our current estimates.
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
8. Reinsurance
We purchase treaty and facultative reinsurance to reduce exposure to a large loss or a series of large losses. Facultative reinsurance provides for all or a portion of the insurance provided by a single policy and each policy reinsured is individually negotiated. Treaty reinsurance provides for a specified type or category of risks. The reinsurance agreements are written on either an excess of loss or quota share basis. Excess of loss covers provide a contractually set amount of cover after an excess point has been reached. This excess point can be based on the size of an industry loss or a fixed monetary amount. These covers can be purchased on a package policy basis, which provide cover for a number of lines of business within one contract. Quota share covers provide a proportional amount of coverage from the first dollar of loss. All of these reinsurance covers provide for recovery of a portion of losses and loss expenses from reinsurers. Under our reinsurance security policy, we predominantly cede our business to reinsurers rated A- or better by S&P and/or A.M. Best. We remain liable to the extent that reinsurers do not meet their obligations under these agreements either due to solvency issues, contractual disputes or some other reason.
The following table provides a breakdown of our ceded premiums by type of cover:
Gross and net premiums written and earned were as follows:
Gross and net incurred losses and loss expenses were as follows:
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
8. Reinsurance (Continued)
Reinsurance recoverable and the provision for unrecoverable reinsurance by segment were as follows:
* Ratings as assigned by S&P and/or A.M. Best.
At December 31, 2008, 6.2% (2007: 9.2%) of the total reinsurance recoverable balance was collateralized.
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
9. Derivative Instruments
The following table summarizes information on the location and amounts of derivative fair values on the consolidated balance sheet as at December 31, 2008:
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
9. Derivative Instruments (Continued)
The following table summarizes information on the location and amounts of derivative fair values on the consolidated balance sheet as at December 31, 2007:
For the fair value hierarchy level, refer to Note 6.
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
9. Derivative Instruments (Continued)
The following table provides the total unrealized and realized gains (losses) recorded in earnings for the years ended December 31, 2008, 2007 and 2006.
Derivative Instruments Designated as a Fair Value Hedge
During 2008, we entered into foreign currency forward contracts to mitigate the foreign currency exposure of two AFS fixed maturity portfolios denominated in Euros. The hedges were designated and qualified as a fair value hedge. Accordingly, we recorded $8 million of unrealized losses on the two hedged AFS portfolios in net realized investment
gains to offset the gains on the foreign exchange contracts noted in the above table. The difference of $1 million represents the hedge ineffectiveness.
Derivative Instruments not Designated as Hedging Instruments
a) Relating to investment portfolio
Within our AFS investment portfolio we are exposed to foreign currency risk. Accordingly, the fair values for our AFS investment portfolio are partially influenced by the change in foreign exchange rates. We entered in foreign currency forward contracts to manage the effect of this foreign currency risk. Certain of these foreign currency hedging activities did not meet the criteria for hedge accounting.
Mortgage derivatives are commonly referred as to be announced mortgage-backed securities. In accordance with FAS 133, these securities are accounted for as derivatives. As part of our investment strategy, we may from time to time invest in mortgage derivatives. At December 31, 2008 and 2007, we had no outstanding mortgage derivatives.
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
9. Derivative Instruments (Continued)
b) Relating to underwriting portfolio
Longevity risk
In September 2007, we issued a policy which indemnifies a third party in the event of a non-payment of the full $400 million asset-backed note (“Note”). This security has a 10 year term with the full principal amount due at maturity and is collateralized by a portfolio of life settlement contracts and cash held by a special purpose entity (SPE). We have concluded that the indemnity contract was a derivative instrument and accordingly we have recorded it at its fair value (see Note 6).
Through the issuance of our indemnity contract, we hold a significant implicit variable interest in the SPE and have concluded that the Company is not its primary beneficiary in accordance with FSP FIN 46(R)-5, Implicit Variable Interests under FASB Interpretation No. 46 (revised December 2003). To make this determination, we identified all significant creators of volatility generated from the SPE, which are longevity and interest rate risks, and the variable interests of the SPE. We absorbed the downside longevity risk up to an aggregate limit of $400 million; whereas, the insured party absorbed the tail end of the longevity downside risk and the upside risk as well as the majority of the downside and upside of the interest rate risk. In accordance with FIN 46(R), we calculated the expected losses and expected residual returns using cash flow scenario techniques to determine which party absorbed the majority of the expected losses. Based on these quantitative analyses and other qualitative factors, we concluded that the insured party was the primary beneficiary. The determination of the primary beneficiary required significant management judgment.
Foreign currency risk
Our insurance and reinsurance subsidiaries and branches operate in various foreign countries and consequently our underwriting portfolio is exposed to significant foreign currency risk. We manage foreign currency risk by seeking to match our liabilities under insurance and reinsurance policies that are payable in foreign currencies with cash and investments that are denominated in such currencies. When necessary, we may also use derivatives to economically hedge un-matched foreign currency exposures, specifically forward contracts and currency options.
Catastrophe-related risk
During 2006, we entered into a $100 million Total Return Swap Facility (the “Facility”) with a financial institution for the purpose of accessing and isolating natural peril exposures embedded in capital market instruments. We utilized half of the Facility to enter into a $50 million catastrophe-related total return swap transaction to assume losses from qualifying earthquake events. As a result of this swap, the Facility was collateralized by a lien over a portfolio of the Company’s investment grade securities. During 2008, we earned payments on the swap, net of the Facility fee, which are included in other insurance related income. The Facility will terminate on September 15, 2009.
10. Debt and Financing Arrangements
a) Senior Notes
On November 15, 2004, we issued $500 million of senior unsecured debt (“Senior Notes”) at an issue price of 99.785%, generating net proceeds of $496 million. The Senior Notes bear interest at a rate of 5.75%, payable semi-annually in arrears on June 1 and December 1 of each year, beginning on June 1, 2005. Unless previously redeemed, the Senior Notes will mature on December 1, 2014. We may redeem the Senior Notes at any time and from time to time, in whole or in part, at a “make-whole” redemption price. The Senior Notes indenture contains various covenants, including limitations
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
10. Debt and Financing Arrangements (Continued)
on liens on the stock of restricted subsidiaries, restrictions as to the disposition of the stock of restricted subsidiaries and limitations on mergers and consolidations. We were in compliance with all the covenants contained in the Senior Notes indenture at December 31, 2008 and 2007.
Interest expense on our Senior Notes includes interest payable, amortization of the offering discount and amortization of debt offering expenses. The offering discount and debt offering expenses are amortized over the period of time during which the Senior Notes are outstanding. In each of the last three years, we incurred interest expense for the Senior Notes of $29 million.
b) Credit Facilities
At December 31, 2008, we had a $1.5 billion credit facility agreement with a syndicate of lenders. The credit agreement is an unsecured five-year facility that allows us to issue letters of credit up to the full amount of the facility and to borrow up to $500 million for general corporate purposes, with total usage not to exceed $1.5 billion. The credit facility will expire on August 25, 2010. On September 26, 2007, we amended the facility to modify certain definitions in order to permit dividend payments on existing and future preferred and hybrid securities notwithstanding certain events of default. All other terms and conditions remain unchanged.
The credit agreement contains various loan covenants, including limitations on the incurrence of future indebtedness, future liens, fundamental changes, investments and certain transactions with affiliates. The facility requires that we maintain 1) a minimum consolidated net worth of $2.0 billion plus (A) 25% of consolidated net income (if positive) of AXIS Capital for each semi-annual fiscal period ending on or after December 31, 2005 plus (B) an amount equal to 25% of the net cash proceeds received by AXIS Capital from the issuance of its capital stock during each such semi-annual fiscal period; and 2) a maximum debt to total capitalization ratio 0.35:1.0.
We were in compliance with all covenants at December 31, 2008 and 2007. At December 31, 2008, we had letters of credit outstanding of $567 million (2007: $306 million). There was no debt outstanding under the credit facility at December 31, 2008 and 2007.
11. Commitments and Contingencies
a) Concentrations of Credit Risk
Financial instruments that potentially subject us to concentrations of credit risk consist principally of investments and reinsurance recoverable balances. Our investment portfolio is managed by external investment managers in accordance with our investment guidelines. Specific provisions limit the allowable holdings of a single issue and issuers. Within our fixed income portfolio, we attempt to limit our credit exposure by purchasing fixed income investments rated BBB or higher. In addition, we limit our exposure to any single corporate issuer to 5% or less of our portfolio for securities rated A- or above and 3% or less of our portfolio for securities rated between BBB and BBB+. At December 31, 2008, we did not have an aggregate exposure to any single issuer of 3% or more of our shareholders’ equity, other than with respect to U.S. government and agency securities.
Concentration of credit risk with respect to reinsurance recoverable balances is limited due to the number of reinsurers used on our reinsurance programs. At December 31, 2008, the top ten reinsurers accounted for 71% of reinsurance balances recoverable, one of which accounted for 15% of this balance. Of the 71%, 57 percentage points are with reinsurers rated A+ or better, with the remainder rated A, by A.M Best.
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
11. Commitments and Contingencies (Continued)
b) Brokers
We produce our business through brokers and direct relationships with insurance companies. During 2008, three brokers accounted for 58% (2007: 55%; 2006: 57%) of our total gross premiums written. Marsh, Inc. (including its subsidiary Guy Carpenter and Company) accounted for 23% (2007: 23%, 2006: 24%), Aon Corporation for 23% (2007: 21%, 2006: 23%) and Willis Group Holdings Ltd. for 12% (2007: 11%, 2006: 11%). No other broker and no one insured or reinsured accounted for more than 10% of our gross premiums written in any of the last three years.
c) Lease Commitments
We lease office space in the countries in which we operate under operating leases which expire at various dates. We renew and enter into new leases in the ordinary course of business as required. During 2008, total rent expense with respect to these operating leases was $15 million (2007: $12 million: 2006: $10 million). Future minimum lease payments under our leases are expected to be as follows:
d) Reinsurance Purchase Commitment
During 2008, we purchased reinsurance coverage for our insurance lines of business. The minimum reinsurance premiums are contractually due on a quarterly basis in advance. Accordingly at December 31, 2008, we have an outstanding reinsurance purchase commitment of $46 million.
e) Legal Proceedings
Except as noted below, we are not a party to any material legal proceedings. From time to time, we are subject to routine legal proceedings, including arbitrations, arising in the ordinary course of business. These legal proceedings generally relate to claims asserted by or against us in the ordinary course of insurance or reinsurance operations. In our opinion, the eventual outcome of these legal proceedings is not expected to have a material adverse effect on our financial condition or results of operations.
In 2005, a putative class action lawsuit was filed against our U.S. insurance subsidiaries. In re Insurance Brokerage Antitrust Litigation was filed on August 15, 2005 in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey and includes as defendants numerous insurance brokers and insurance companies. The lawsuit alleges antitrust and Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”) violations in connection with the payment of contingent commissions and manipulation of insurance bids and seeks damages in an unspecified amount. On October 3, 2006, the District Court granted, in part, motions to dismiss filed by the defendants, and ordered plaintiffs to file supplemental pleadings setting forth sufficient facts to allege their antitrust and RICO claims. After plaintiffs filed their supplemental
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
11. Commitments and Contingencies (Continued)
pleadings, defendants renewed their motions to dismiss. On April 15, 2007, the District Court dismissed without prejudice plaintiffs’ complaint, as amended, and granted plaintiffs thirty (30) days to file another amended complaint and/or revised RICO Statement and Statements of Particularity. In May 2007, plaintiffs filed (i) a Second Consolidated Amended Commercial Class Action complaint, (ii) a Revised Particularized Statement Describing the Horizontal Conspiracies Alleged in the Second Consolidated Amended Commercial Class Action Complaint, and (iii) a Third Amended Commercial Insurance Plaintiffs’ RICO Case Statement Pursuant to Local Rule 16.1(B)(4). On June 21, 2007, the defendants filed renewed motions to dismiss. On September 28, 2007, the District Court dismissed with prejudice plaintiffs’ antitrust and RICO claims and declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over plaintiffs’ remaining state law claims. On October 10, 2007, plaintiffs filed a notice of appeal of all adverse orders and decisions to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and a hearing is scheduled for April 2009. We believe that the lawsuit is completely without merit and we continue to vigorously defend the filed action.
f) Dividends for Common Shares and Preferred Shares
On December 4, 2008 the Board of Directors declared a dividend of $0.20 per common share to shareholders of record at December 31, 2008 and payable on January 15, 2009. Additionally, the Board of Directors declared a dividend of $0.453125 per Series A 7.25% Preferred share and a dividend of $1.875 per Series B 7.5% Preferred share. The Series A Preferred share dividend is payable on January 15, 2009, to shareholders of record at December 31, 2008 and the Series B Preferred share dividend is payable on March 2, 2009 to shareholders of record at February 17, 2009.
12. Earnings per Common Share
The following table provides a comparison of basic and diluted earnings per common share:
For the year ended December 31, 2008, there were 843,904 restricted shares that were excluded in the computation of diluted earnings per share because the effect would be anti-dilutive (2007: nil and 2006: 881,980).
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
13. Shareholders’ Equity
a) Common Shares
Our authorized share capital is 800,000,000 common shares, par value of $0.0125 per share. At December 31, 2008, 136,211,956 (2007: 142,520,406) common shares were outstanding, which excludes restricted shares under our stock compensation plans (see Note 15).
b) Series A and B Preferred Shares
On October 5, 2005, we issued $250 million of 7.25% series A Preferred shares, par value $0.0125 per share, with a liquidation preference of $25.00 per share. We may redeem the shares on and after October 15, 2010 at a redemption price of $25.00 per share. Dividends on the series A Preferred shares are non-cumulative. Consequently, if the board of directors does not authorize and declare a dividend for any dividend period, holders of the series A Preferred shares will not be entitled to receive a dividend for such period, and such undeclared dividend will not accumulate and be payable. Holders of series A Preferred shares will be entitled to receive, only when, as and if declared by the board of directors, non-cumulative cash dividends from the original issue date, quarterly in arrears on the fifteenth day of January, April, July and October of each year, commencing on January 15, 2006, without accumulation of any undeclared dividends. To the extent declared, these dividends will accumulate, with respect to each dividend period, in an amount per share equal to 7.25% of the liquidation preference per annum. For 2008 and 2007, the total dividends declared on series A Preferred share was $1.8125 per share.
On November 23, 2005, we issued $250 million of 7.50% series B Preferred shares with a liquidation preference of $100.00 per share. We may redeem the shares on or after December 1, 2015 at a redemption price of $100.00 per share. Dividends on the series B Preferred shares if, as and when declared by our board of directors will be payable initially at a fixed rate per annum equal to 7.50% of the liquidation preference on the first day of March, June, September and December of each year, commencing on March 1, 2006, up to but not including December 1, 2015.
Commencing on March 1, 2016, the dividend rate on the series B Preferred shares will be payable at a floating rate. During a floating rate period, the floating rate per annum will be reset quarterly at a rate equal to 3.4525% plus the 3-month LIBOR Rate. Dividends on the series B Preferred shares are non-cumulative. Consequently, if the board of directors does not declare a dividend for any dividend period, holders of the series B Preferred shares will not be entitled to receive a dividend for such period, and such undeclared dividends will not accumulate and will not be payable. For 2008 and 2007, the total dividends declared on series B Preferred share was $7.50 per share.
The holders of the series A and B Preferred shares will have no voting rights except as described below. Whenever dividends payable on the series A and B Preferred shares have not been declared by the board of directors and paid for an aggregate amount equivalent to six full quarterly dividends (whether or not consecutive) on all of the series A and B Preferred shares or any class or series of parity stock then outstanding, the holders of the series A and B Preferred shares, together with the holders of each such class or series of parity stock, will have the right, voting together as a single class regardless of class or series, to elect two directors to our board of directors. We will use our best efforts to effectuate the election or appointment of these two directors. Whenever dividends on the series A and B Preferred shares and the parity stock then outstanding have been paid in full, or declared and sufficient funds have been set aside, for at least four dividend periods, the right of holders of the series A and B Preferred shares and the parity stock to be represented by directors will cease (but subject always to the same provision for the vesting of such rights in the case of any future suspension of payments in an amount equivalent to dividends for six full dividend periods whether or not consecutive), and the terms of office of the additional directors elected or appointed to the Board of Directors will terminate.
c) Share Warrants
In connection with our formation, we issued warrants to founding shareholders which entitle them to purchase up to 12% of the aggregate number of outstanding shares at the date of issuance, calculated on a fully diluted basis, on the exercise
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
13. Shareholders’ Equity (Continued)
date at a price of $12.50 per share. The warrants are subject to anti-dilution provisions that adjust in the event of dividends, distributions or stock adjustments. In the event of a dividend, a warrant holder may elect to take either an adjustment to both the exercise price and the number of shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants or to take a cash dividend that is paid upon exercise of the warrant. The anti-dilution provisions ensure that the holder is in the same position as if the warrant had been exercised immediately before the dividend, distribution or stock adjustment.
At December 31, 2008, 19,710,390 common shares (2007: 19,651,329) would be issued pursuant to the warrants, if all warrants were exercised at an average price of $12.40 (2007: $12.42). All warrants were exercisable on November 20, 2001. At December 31, 2008, we accrued $56 million (2007: $43 million) of cash dividends relating to the anti-dilution provision in respect of the warrants. The expiration date for the warrants is November 20, 2011.
The warrants were granted to the founding shareholders as an inducement to purchase our stock and therefore no compensation expense has been recorded in connection with the warrants. The fair value of the warrants at November 20, 2001 of $65 million has been included in additional paid-in capital. This value was calculated using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model. The three significant assumptions used were: risk-free interest rate of 5.1%; expected life of 7 years; and a dividend yield of nil.
d) Treasury shares
Following our shareholders’ approval at the Annual General Meeting held in May 2007, we amended our bye-laws to permit common shares repurchased to be held in treasury.
On December 6, 2007, our Board approved a new share repurchase plan authorizing $400 million of share repurchases (the “2007 repurchase plan”), in addition to the $95 million remaining from the 2006 repurchase plan which expired on December 31, 2008. During 2008 and 2007 we made the following share repurchases, which were held in treasury.
(1) To satisfy withholding tax liabilities upon the vesting of restricted stock awards and the exercise of stock options. Share repurchases from employees are excluded from the authorized share repurchase plans noted above.
(2) Calculated using whole figures.
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
13. Shareholders’ Equity (Continued)
At December 31, 2008, we had $212 million remaining of shares that may be repurchased under the 2007 repurchase plan, which will expire on December 31, 2009.
During 2007, under the 2006 repurchase plan, we repurchased 2,786,611 common shares for cancellation for a total cost of $103 million. The total share repurchases made in 2007, including those held in treasury (noted in the above table), include 5,263,445 shares repurchased from Trident II, L.P and affiliated entities, for a total purchase price of $201 million.
14. Benefit Plans
We provide retirement benefits to eligible employees through various plans sponsored by us.
(i) Defined Contribution Plans
We have several defined contribution plans that are self directed. Generally, mutual funds are made available pursuant to which employees and we contribute a percentage of the employee’s gross salary into the plan each month. During 2008, our total contribution expenses were $10 million (2007: $10 million and 2006: $8 million).
(ii) Supplemental Executive Retirement Plans (“SERPs”)
We have SERPs for our two senior executives: Chairman, Mr. Butt, and President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr. Charman. The SERP for Mr. Butt requires us to make annual payments to him upon retirement, or beginning January 1, 2010, even if he has not retired, for a period of 10 years. The SERP for Mr. Charman requires us to make annual payments to him starting January 1, 2009, even if he has not retired, for a period of 20 years.
If either the CEO or Chairman dies, is disabled or a change of control of the Company occurs, the remaining benefits under their respective SERP are payable by the Company in a lump sum. At December 31, 2008, the total lump sum contingently payable to our CEO and Chairman was $23 million and $4 million, respectively. During 2008, we incurred a pension expense of $3 million (2007 and 2006: $2 million) for the two SERPs. At December 31, 2008, the accrued SERPs obligations were $16 million (2007: $14 million). The weighted-average assumptions used to determine our net periodic pension cost and benefit obligations were as follows:
(1)
The rate is fixed at 3% for the duration of the SERPs.
At December 31, 2008, the fair value of the SERPs assets was $16 million (2007: $14 million), which include $4 million contributions we made during the year to cover primarily the cumulative actuarial losses experienced on the SERPs. The actuarial losses are primarily due to the less than expected investment return on the SERPs assets as a result of the turmoil in the financial markets experienced in 2008. Our investment strategy is to maintain a conservative and diversified asset allocation strategy to yield a 5.75% annualized return over the life of the SERPs. The plan assets consist of a money-market fund and global debt and equity mutual funds.
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
15. Stock Compensation Plans
In May 2007, our shareholders approved the AXIS Capital Holdings Limited 2007 Long-Term Equity Compensation Plan (“2007 Plan”). The 2007 Plan provides for, among other things, the grant of restricted stock awards and units, non-qualified and incentive stock options, and other equity-based awards to our employees and directors. The maximum number of our common shares that may be delivered under our 2007 Plan is 5,000,000. As a result of the adoption of the 2007 Plan, the 2003 Long-Term Equity Compensation and 2003 Directors Long-Term Equity Compensation Plan were terminated (“2003 Plans”), except that all related outstanding awards will remain in effect. All stock compensation plans are administered by the Compensation Committee of our Board of Directors.
We have issued stock options, restricted stocks, restricted stock units, and phantom stock units to our employees and non-management directors but none of these awards were subject to performance and market conditions. At December 31, 2008, 2,285,277 equity-based awards remain available for grant under the 2007 Plan. Subsequent to December 31, 2008, we granted 29,060 unrestricted common shares and phantom stock units to our non-management directors on January 15, 2009, at a fair value of $27.77 per share. We also granted 1,179,000 restricted shares and units to our employees on February 9, 2009, at a fair value of $26.26 per share. These awards carry a vesting period of four years with 25% of the award to be vested annually.
(i) Stock options
We have granted stock options under the 2003 Plans. The stock options generally become exercisable over a three-year annual vesting period and expire 10 years from the date of grant. We have determined the fair value of each stock option grant at the date of grant.
In 2006, we issued 23,334 modified stock options pursuant to a severance agreement. Under FAS No. 123(R), modified stock options are deemed cancelled and new grants issued at the new terms. We have elected to use the simplified method of calculating the expected life of the options, which is the average of the vesting period and the expiry period. The weighted-average fair value of stock options granted per share in 2006 was $4.48, based on using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model with the following weighted-average assumptions: 1) expected term of the options of 0.3 years; 2) risk free interest rate of 4.6%; 3) expected volatility of 20%; and 4) dividend yield of 1.7%. We have not issued stock options in 2007 and 2008.
The following is a summary of stock options outstanding and exercisable at December 31, 2008, and related activity for the year ended:
* The aggregate intrinsic value in the table above represents the total pre-tax intrinsic value (the difference between our closing stock price on December 31, 2008, and the exercisable price, multiplied by the number of in-the-money-options) that would have been received by the stock option holders had all stock option holders exercised their stock options on December 31, 2008.
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
15. Stock Compensation Plans (Continued)
The total intrinsic value of stock options exercised during 2008 was $35 million (2007: $5 million) and we received proceeds of $24 million (2007: $8 million). At December 31, 2007, there was no remaining unrecognized compensation cost related to stock options and accordingly we incurred no related compensation costs during 2008.
(ii) Restricted stock
We have granted restricted stock under both our 2003 Plans and the 2007 Plan. The nature and general terms of these plans are materially consistent. Restricted shares are entitled to vote and to receive dividends but may not be transferred during the period of restriction and are forfeited if the employee’s employment terminates prior to vesting. For employees, restricted stock grants generally cliff vest three years after the date of grant or upon the employee’s earlier retirement, death, permanent disability or a change in control of the Company. Prior to 2008, restricted stock and phantom stock units granted to our non-management directors generally vested six months after the date of grant or upon the director’s earlier retirement, death, permanent disability or a change in control of the Company. Starting in 2008, under the 2007 Plan, we granted common stock and phantom stock units with no vesting restriction to our non-management directors.
We have determined the fair value of all stock and unit grants using the closing price of our common shares on the New York Stock Exchange on the day of the grant. The following table provides a reconciliation of the beginning and ending balance of unvested restricted stock for the year ended December 31, 2008:
During 2008, we granted 2,747,630 restricted shares (2007: 1,596,400; 2006: 1,299,332) to our employees and non-management directors with a weighted average grant-date fair value per share of $37.23 (2007: $33.02; 2006: $31.01), including 1,000,000 shares with a grant date fair value of $35.17 per share to our CEO in connection with an amendment to his employment agreement. The grant made to our CEO will vest as follows: 500,000 shares on January 31, 2009; 166,667 shares on January 1, 2010; 166,667 shares on January 1, 2012; and 166,666 shares on January 1, 2013. We have elected the straight-line recognition method for awards subject to graded vesting based on a service condition.
During 2008, we incurred $67 million (2007: $34 million; 2006: $21 million) in respect of restricted stock, and recorded tax benefits thereon of $7 million (2007: $6 million; 2006: $3 million). The compensation costs incurred in 2008 include $15 million for the above grant made to our CEO, $3 million for modified grants, and $3 million incremental charge associated with the shorter vesting period for certain employees that have reached retirement eligibility under our 2007 Plan. The total fair value of shares vested during 2008 was $24 million (2007: $13 million; 2006: $3 million). At December 31, 2008, there was $84 million of unrecognized compensation cost related to restricted stock awards, which is expected to be recognized over the weighted average period of 2.4 years.
During 2008, we also realized additional tax benefits for certain vested restricted stocks and exercised stock options of $1 million (2007: $1 million; 2006: negligible). These excess tax benefits are included in our cash flows from financing activities in the Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows.
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
15. Stock Compensation Plans (Continued)
Our non-management directors may also elect to receive their meeting and other fees in common shares or phantom stock units rather than cash, based on the fair value of our common shares at the time of the grant. At December 31, 2008, we had 62,091 (2007: 53,463) phantom stock units outstanding and we have issued a cumulative total of 72,189 (2007: 52,816) common shares in lieu of fees.
16. Related Party Transactions
The transactions listed below are classified as related party transactions as each counterparty had or has had either a direct or indirect shareholding in us or has been a board member during any period covered by the financial statements.
The collateral manager of four of our CLOs is Blackstone Debt Advisors L.P., who is entitled to management fees payable by the collateralized obligations in the ordinary course of business. We also have investments in three hedge funds and a credit fund that are managed by Blackstone Alternative Asset Management, LP, who is entitled to management fees in the ordinary course of business. During 2008, total management fees to the Blackstone Group were $2 million (2007: $4 million; 2006: $2 million).
17. Taxation
Under current Bermuda law, we are not required to pay any taxes in Bermuda on its income or capital gains. We have received an undertaking from the Minister of Finance in Bermuda that, in the event of any taxes being imposed, we will be exempt from taxation in Bermuda until March 2016. Our Bermuda subsidiary has a branch operation in Singapore, which is subject to the relevant taxes in that jurisdiction. The branch is not under examination in this tax jurisdiction, but remains subject to examination for tax year 2008.
Our U.S. subsidiaries are subject to federal, state and local corporate income taxes and other taxes applicable to U.S. corporations. The provision for federal income taxes has been determined under the principles of the consolidated tax provisions of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code and Regulations. Should the U.S. subsidiaries pay a dividend outside the U.S. group, withholding taxes will apply. Our U.S. subsidiaries are not under examination but remain subject to examination in the U.S. for tax years 2005-2008. One of our U.S. subsidiaries has a branch operation in Canada, which is subject to the relevant taxes in that jurisdiction. The branch is not under examination in this tax jurisdiction, but remains subject to examination for tax year 2008.
We also have operating subsidiaries and branch operations in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Australia which are subject to the relevant taxes in those jurisdictions. Our various European operating subsidiaries and branch operations in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Australia are not under examination in any of these tax jurisdictions, but generally remain subject to examination for tax years 2004-2008.
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
17. Taxation (Continued)
The following table provides an analysis of our income tax expense and net tax assets:
Deferred income taxes reflect the tax impact of temporary differences between the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities for financial reporting and income tax purposes. The significant components of our deferred tax assets and liabilities were as follows:
The net deferred assets of $86 million at December 31, 2008 include a $52 million valuation allowance. The valuation allowance has been established against certain U.S. deferred tax assets attributable to realized and unrealized losses, capital loss carryforwards on investments and impairments. At this time, we believe it is necessary to establish a valuation allowance against the deferred tax assets due to insufficient positive evidence regarding the utilization of these losses. During the twelve months ended December 31, 2008, $30 million of the valuation allowance was recorded in the Consolidated Statements of Operations and $22 million recorded as a component of other comprehensive income in shareholders’ equity.
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
17. Taxation (Continued)
At December 31, 2007, we determined that a valuation allowance for the deferred tax assets arising from capital loss carryforwards was not necessary due to sufficient unrealized gains in the investment portfolio which could be used to realize the capital loss carryforwards.
Although realization is not assured, management believes it is more likely than not that the tax benefit of the remaining net deferred tax assets will be realized. There were no unrecognized tax benefits at December 31, 2008 and 2007.
The tax benefit of existing capital loss carryforwards at December 31, 2008 by expiration date is as follows: $2 million expire in 2010, $4 million expire in 2011 and $67 million expire in 2013.
The following table is a reconciliation of the actual income tax rate to the amount computed by applying the effective tax
rate of 0% under Bermuda law to income before income taxes:
18. Statutory Financial Information
Our insurance and reinsurance operations are subject to insurance and/or reinsurance laws and regulations in the jurisdictions in which they operate, including Bermuda, Ireland and the United States. These regulations include certain restrictions on the amount of dividends or other distributions, such as loans or cash advances, available to shareholders without prior approval of the insurance regulatory authorities.
The unaudited statutory capital and surplus, for our principal operating subsidiaries at December 31, 2008 and 2007 was as follows:
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
18. Statutory Financial Information (Continued)
Our U.S. operations required statutory capital and surplus is determined using risk based capital tests, which is the threshold that constitutes the authorized control level. If a company falls below the control level, the commissioner is authorized to take whatever regulatory actions considered necessary to protect policyholders and creditors. The maximum dividend that may be paid by our U.S. insurance subsidiaries is restricted by the regulatory requirements of the domiciliary states. Generally, the maximum dividend that may be paid by each of our U.S. insurance subsidiaries is limited to unassigned surplus (statutory equivalent of retained earnings) and cannot exceed 10% of total statutory capital and surplus. At December 31, 2008, the maximum dividend that our U.S. insurance operations could pay without regulatory approval was approximately $41 million.
Under the Insurance Act 1978, amendments thereto and Related Regulations of Bermuda, our Bermuda subsidiary, AXIS Specialty Bermuda is restricted as to the payment of dividends for amounts greater than 25% of the prior year’s statutory capital and surplus whereby a signed affidavit by at least two members of the Board of Directors attesting that a dividend in excess of this amount would not cause the company to fail to meet its relevant margins is required. At December 31, 2008, the maximum dividend AXIS Specialty Bermuda could pay, without a signed affidavit, having met minimum levels of statutory capital and surplus requirements, was approximately $869 million.
Our Irish subsidiaries, AXIS Specialty Europe and AXIS Re Ltd., are required to maintain minimum levels of statutory and capital surplus. As at 31 December our subsidiaries were in compliance with these requirements. Our Irish subsidiaries may declare dividends out of retained earnings subject to meeting their solvency and capital requirements. At December 31, 2008 the maximum dividend our Irish subsidiaries could pay out of retained earnings, subject to regulatory approval, was $7 million.
Total statutory net income of our operating subsidiaries was $408 million, $1,137 million and $980 million for 2008, 2007 and 2006, respectively. The difference between statutory financial statements and statements prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP vary by jurisdiction; however, the primary difference is that statutory financial statements do not reflect
deferred acquisition costs, certain net deferred tax assets, goodwill and intangible assets, unrealized appreciation on debt securities or certain unauthorized reinsurance recoverables.
19. Condensed Quarterly Financial Data - Unaudited
The following tables summarize our quarterly financial data:
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
19. Condensed Quarterly Financial Data - Unaudited (Continued)
ITEM 9.
ITEM 9. CHANGES IN AND DISAGREEMENTS WITH ACCOUNTANTS ON ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE
Not applicable.
ITEM 9A.
ITEM 9A. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES
Disclosure Controls and Procedures
The Company’s management has performed an evaluation, with the participation of the Company’s Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, of the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”)) as of December 31, 2008. Based upon that evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures are effective to ensure that information required to be disclosed by us in reports that we file or submit under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the rules and forms of the SEC and is accumulated and communicated to management, including its principal executive and principal financial officers, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.
Management’s Annual Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
The Company’s management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) of the Exchange Act). The Company’s management has performed an assessment, with the participation of the Company’s Chief Executive Officer and the Company’s Chief Financial Officer, of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2008. In making this assessment, management used the criteria set forth by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission in Internal Control-Integrated Framework. Based upon that assessment, the Company’s management believes that, as of December 31, 2008, our internal control over financial reporting is effective to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.
Our independent registered public accounting firm has issued an attestation report on our assessment of the our internal control over financial reporting. This report appears below.
All internal control systems, no matter how well designed, have inherent limitations. As a result, even those internal control systems determined to be effective can provide only reasonable assurance with respect to financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements.
Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
The Company’s management has performed an evaluation, with the participation of the Company’s Chief Executive Officer and the Company’s Chief Financial Officer, of changes in the Company’s internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the quarter ended December 31, 2008. Based upon that evaluation there were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the quarter ended December 31, 2008 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.
Attestation Report of the Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM
To the Board of Directors and Shareholders of
AXIS Capital Holdings Limited
We have audited the internal control over financial reporting of AXIS Capital Holdings Limited and subsidiaries (the “Company”) as of December 31, 2008, based on criteria established in Internal Control - Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission. The Company’s management is responsible for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, included in the accompanying Management’s Annual Report on Internal Controls Over Financial Reporting. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s internal control over financial reporting based on our audit.
We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States). Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects. Our audit included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk, and performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.
A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed by, or under the supervision of, the company’s principal executive and principal financial officers, or persons performing similar functions, and effected by the company’s board of directors, management, and other personnel to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.
Because of the inherent limitations of internal control over financial reporting, including the possibility of collusion or improper management override of controls, material misstatements due to error or fraud may not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. Also, projections of any evaluation of the effectiveness of the internal control over financial reporting to future periods are subject to the risk that the controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
In our opinion, the Company maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2008, based on the criteria established in Internal Control - Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission.
We have also audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States), the consolidated financial statements and financial statement schedules as of and for the year ended December 31, 2008 of the Company and our report dated February 24, 2009 expressed an unqualified opinion on those financial statements and financial statement schedules.
/s/ Deloitte & Touche
Hamilton, Bermuda
February 24, 2009
ITEM 9B.
ITEM 9B. OTHER INFORMATION
Not applicable.
PART III
ITEM 10.
ITEM 10. DIRECTORS, EXECUTIVE OFFICERS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
The information required by this item is incorporated by reference to a definitive proxy statement that will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission not later than 120 days after the close of the fiscal year ended December 31, 2008 pursuant to Regulation 14A.
ITEM 11.
ITEM 11. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION
The information required by this item is incorporated by reference to a definitive proxy statement that will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission not later than 120 days after the close of the fiscal year ended December 31, 2008 pursuant to Regulation 14A.
ITEM 12.
ITEM 12. SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS AND MANAGEMENT AND RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS
The information required by this item is incorporated by reference to a definitive proxy statement that will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission not later than 120 days after the close of the fiscal year ended December 31, 2008 pursuant to Regulation 14A.
ITEM 13.
ITEM 13. CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED TRANSACTIONS, AND DIRECTOR INDEPENDENCE
The information required by this item is incorporated by reference to a definitive proxy statement that will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission not later than 120 days after the close of the fiscal year ended December 31, 2008 pursuant to Regulation 14A.
ITEM 14.
ITEM 14. PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTANT FEES AND SERVICES
The information required by this item is incorporated by reference to a definitive proxy statement that will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission not later than 120 days after the close of the fiscal year ended December 31, 2008 pursuant to Regulation 14A.
PART IV
ITEM 15.
ITEM 15. EXHIBITS AND FINANCIAL STATEMENT SCHEDULES.
(a) Financial Statements, Financial Statement Schedules and Exhibits.
1. Financial Statements
Included in Part II-See Item 8 of this report.
2. Financial Statement Schedules
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
Schedule II
-
Condensed Financial Information of Registrant
Schedule III
-
Supplementary Insurance Information
Schedule IV
-
Supplementary Reinsurance Information
Schedules I, V and VI have been omitted as the information is provided in Item 8, Consolidated Financial Statements, or in the above schedules.
3. Exhibits
* Exhibits 10.2 through 10.30 represent a management contract, compensatory plan or arrangement in which directors and/or executive officers are eligible to participate.
SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized on February 24, 2009.
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
By:
/s/ JOHN R. CHARMAN
John R. Charman
Chief Executive Officer and President
POWER OF ATTORNEY
We, the undersigned directors and executive officers of AXIS Capital Holdings Limited, hereby severally constitute David B. Greenfield, John J. Murray and Richard T. Gieryn, Jr., and each of them singly, as our true and lawful attorneys with full power to them and each of them to sign for us, and in our names in the capacities indicated below, any and all amendments to the Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, hereby ratifying and confirming our signatures as they may be signed by our said attorneys to any and all amendments to said Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, this report has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the registrant and in the capacities indicated on February 24, 2009.
Signature
Title
/s/ JOHN R. CHARMAN
John R. Charman
Chief Executive Officer, President and Director
(Principal Executive Officer)
/s/ DAVID B. GREENFIELD
David B. Greenfield
Chief Financial Officer
(Principal Financial Officer)
/s/ GORDON MCFADDEN
Gordon McFadden
Controller
(Principal Accounting Officer)
/s/ GEOFFREY BELL
Geoffrey Bell
Director
/s/ MICHAEL A. BUTT
Michael A. Butt
Director
/s/ CHARLES A. DAVIS
Charles A. Davis
Director
/s/ ROBERT L. FRIEDMAN
Robert L. Friedman
Director
REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM
To the Board of Directors and Shareholders of
AXIS Capital Holdings Limited
We have audited the consolidated financial statements of AXIS Capital Holdings Limited and subsidiaries (the “Company”) as of December 31, 2008 and 2007, and for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2008, and the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2008, and have issued our reports thereon dated February 24, 2009; such consolidated financial statements and reports are included in this Form 10-K. Our audits also included the consolidated financial statement schedules of the Company listed in Item 15. These consolidated financial statement schedules are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion based on our audits. In our opinion, such consolidated financial statement schedules, when considered in relation to the basic consolidated financial statements taken as a whole, present fairly, in all material respects, the information set forth therein.
/s/ Deloitte & Touche
Hamilton, Bermuda
February 24, 2009
SCHEDULE II
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
CONDENSED BALANCE SHEETS - PARENT COMPANY
AT DECEMBER 31, 2008 AND 2007
SCHEDULE II (Continued)
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
CONDENSED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS - PARENT COMPANY
YEARS ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
SCHEDULE II (Continued)
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
CONDENSED STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS - PARENT COMPANY
YEARS ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006
(1) Dividends received from subsidiaries have been reported as operating activities in 2008 with conforming changes to 2007 and 2006 which were reported previously in investing activities.
SCHEDULE III
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
SUPPLEMENTARY INSURANCE INFORMATION
At and year ended December 31, 2008
At and year ended December 31, 2007
At and year ended December 31, 2006
(1) Investment income is not allocated to our segments as cash and investments are managed centrally.
SCHEDULE IV
AXIS CAPITAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
SUPPLEMENTARY REINSURANCE INFORMATION
YEARS ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2008, 2007 AND 2006