Quinn Insurance: Not with a bang . . .

Liberty gets the prize, as Anglo Irish roots it home. Forbes gets cynical, noting that Sean Quinn’s net worth fell $10 billion in four years. Irish Times becomes lyrical, as, in the end, Sean is out 100 quid. Me? I’m a Lynch. Go back far, and I’ve Irish roots.  It’s another tragedy on an island [...]

Quinn horserace: Neck and neck, they stumble to the finish

If you’ve been following this mess of a story, you knew the bidding for Quinn would end in a slough of mud. The Sunday Business Post Online reports that the Anglo Irish/Liberty Mutual bid won. The Irish Independent slaps that story down, noting that Anglo hasn’t submitted a final bid yet. If that’s not confusing [...]

The Quinn shortlist – Zurich and Allianz?

In the face of reports earlier this week that Liberty Mutual, Travelers and Anglo Irish Bank were on the short list to take over capital-weak Quinn Insurance, the Irish Financial Regulator announced that it would not be telling who is on the short list. Laura Noonan at the Irish Independent has the story. Meanwhile, she [...]

Liberty, Travelers, Anglo Irish Bank are Quinn finalists

Ireland’s financial regulator has narrowed to five the potential buyers of Quinn Insurance, the insurance arm of the failed Quinn business empire, Sunday Business Post Online reports. Liberty Mutual, Travelers and Anglo Irish Bank are in, along with two others, unnamed. Left out are Aviva, RSA and FBD. This is the first I’ve read of [...]

At Quinn Insurance, no new owner till Christmas

Legwork via the Irish Independent: THE ownership of Quinn Insurance is likely to take several months to resolve with administrators aiming to offload the stricken insurer “before Christmas”, sources confirmed last night. The news came as Anglo Irish Bank confirmed it had lodged an “expression of interest” in acquiring the insurer ahead of [Friday's] 5.30pm [...]

Quinn Insurance – the final chapters

The sad saga of the Irish insurer leaves the popcorn stage. Final bids should be coming in as I write this. Laura Noonan of the Irish Independent has been the go-to for the saga, so I’ll let her take over:

Failed bankers try to run the world

I don’t venture too far into banking issues, because I don’t know terribly much about them. Of course, I’d expect bankers to take the same cautious stance toward insurance. Or department stores. Or golf courses. But then I wouldn’t be considering Anglo Irish Bank, one of the bidders for Quinn Insurance, the Irish insurer whose [...]

Quinn Insurance now Quinn-less

The Irish Examiner reports a development that’s frankly none too surprising: The administrators of Quinn Insurance have removed all the mates of one-time company leader Sean Quinn from the board. Sean Quinn, of course, launched the company, which collapsed a few months ago under the weight of supporting all Sean Quinn’s enterprises. The administrators also [...]

Quinn’s odd assets

This fairly solid Irish Independent piece is fairly upbeat on the future of Quinn Insurance, the high-profile Irish insurance failure. Now maybe you don’t care so much about Quinn, but it is high profile in Ireland, and it’s high profile to me, mainly because it’s the source of actuarial merriment. Here, for example, are some [...]

What’s Quinn worth?

It’s always buyer beware in insurance purchases, but Quinn Insurance – the Irish flameout of 2010 – is a special case. The Irish Independent points out that Quinn had been making money from the financial crisis, but much of that came from an investment strategy that seems, reading tea leaves from an ocean away, inappropriately [...]