Old Mutual ploughs life assurance furrow

Gifford, who took over from Suresh Sadasivan in July last year, has ploughed into the life assurance sector as it pays good yields and is cheap. And he has also increased exposure to the non-life insurers. “Non-life insurers were interesting because after hurricane Katrina in 2005 premiums for property insurance went through the roof, and in 2006 they were writing really good business,” he said. “I invested aggressively into the theme late in 2006, holding Hiscox, Chaucer and Amlin which made up over 5pc of the fund, and the hurricane season was subsequently very weak in the US so the...