What’s New: In Brief (April 09, 2007)

The Loyalist Insurance Group Limited (TSX: LOY) announced that it has filed revised financial statements for the year of 2005, as well as interim periods throughout 2006. The annual and interim management discussion and analysis (MD&A) have been revised to: include certain disclosure items previously omitted; provide more detailed discussions of the companys results of operations for the periods indicated; provide a more comprehensive discussion of the companys liquidity and capital resources; and provide a discussion of the risks and uncertainties which the company faces. Loyalist emphasises that the revised annual and interim MD&As and the additional notes to the interim financial statements do not involve the restatement of financial information published previously by the company, according to a Loyalist statement.

The U.S. property/casualty industry roughly halved its unfunded asbestos liabilities during 2005 while continuing to chip away at its more significant environmental exposures, according to a recently released special report from A.M. Best Co. A 2005 year-end estimate placed unfunded asbestos and environmental liabilities for the industry at approximately US$4 billion for asbestos and US$22 billion for environmental. Estimated incurred-to-date losses have reached nearly US$95 billion, of which US$61 billion relates to asbestos exposures. A.M. Bests view of industry funding levels continues to be centred on the estimates of ultimate industry losses of US$65 billion and US$56 billion for asbestos and environmental, respectively.