GLOBAL Reinsurance Company

GLOBAL Re first German company to receive approval of Scheme of Arrangement according to Anglo-Saxon law

On 10 December, the relevant British court approved the first ever Solvent Scheme of Arrangement (“Scheme”) proposed by a German reinsurer. GLOBAL Reinsurance Company received authority to commute within a short period a specific part of its business which is in runoff. Over 900 creditors involved in the reinsurance treaties included in the Scheme will now benefit from a six month period during which they can assert their claims.

In Great Britain, and in other countries with common-law jurisdiction, Schemes are set up as a method of composition agreement in which a company seeks with all or specific groups of its creditors to commute all their claims emanating from the reinsurance treaties included in the Scheme definition.

The GLOBAL Re Scheme concerns certain reinsurance treaties accepted from 1954 to 2002 and in addition, contracts with cedants or placed via insurance brokers domiciled in Great Britain.
At a formal meeting on 17 October, which was specifically convened for the purpose, the required majority of creditors voted for an approval of the Scheme by the High Court of Justice of England & Wales pursuant to Part 26 of the British Companies Act 2006.
As GLOBAL Re also provides services for companies and portfolios in run-off, it now intends to make its support available to interested third parties for a successful implementation of further such Schemes of Arrangement.

GLOBAL Re was advised by PricewaterhouseCoopers and represented in legal matters by the British law firm Clyde & Co.

Cologne, 11.12.2008