Editorial Briefing
Aon has confirmed the appointment of Simon Hawkins as Executive Managing Director for Reinsurance within its global legacy team, joining later this year and reporting to Mike Cane, Aon’s head of UK capital advisory. Hawkins joins from Compre, where he spent close to six years, rising from Chief Operating Officer (2018) to Chief Financial Officer, then CEO Europe (2022), and finally Executive Managing Director (2024). Before Compre, he held the role of Head of Legacy at QBE.

Why It Matters
This is a genuinely senior, long-tenured exit for Compre — Hawkins was one of the more visible faces of the firm’s European business through its Bermuda redomicile and its broader push into Lloyd’s and North American legacy markets. A hire of this profile and depth of relationships is a real strengthening move for Aon’s legacy advisory bench, not a routine appointment.

JDCC View
We’d expect this to sting more than most departures at Compre, given how central Hawkins was to the firm’s European growth story over the past several years. Worth watching both sides of this: what it signals about Aon’s ambitions in legacy advisory, and how Compre moves to fill the gap he leaves in Europe.

Editorial Briefing
Delegates at this week’s IRLA conference in Brighton pointed to a softening primary insurance market as the catalyst for an anticipated wave of carrier-level M&A over the coming 12–18 months. The consensus in conference-floor discussions was that consolidation activity among primary carriers — driven by margin pressure and capital discipline in a softer pricing environment — will, in turn, generate a fresh pipeline of legacy and run-off opportunities, as acquiring groups look to shed or restructure discontinued back-books inherited through the deals themselves.

Why It Matters
Historically, cycles of primary market consolidation have run roughly one to two years ahead of a corresponding uptick in legacy transaction volume, as newly-combined entities complete their post-merger portfolio reviews before bringing non-core liabilities to market. If delegates’ read of the current cycle is right, that would place the resulting legacy opportunity window sometime across next year — making this the kind of early-stage signal worth tracking now, well before it shows up as an announced transaction.

JDCC View
We’re flagging this while it’s still sentiment rather than substance, precisely because that’s the point at which being first matters. If the pattern holds and a resulting wave of legacy submissions does materialise next year, this edition marks where we called it. We’ll be revisiting this one specifically to track whether conference-floor mood converts into actual mandates.

Editorial Briefing
SCOR and Japan Post remain in discussions over a proposed reinsurance investment structure intended to support long-term growth and capital efficiency for both parties. The talks have not progressed to a binding agreement, and neither party has disclosed the specific mechanics of the structure under consideration.

Why It Matters
This marks a continuation of a story first flagged in an earlier edition, where we noted it as one to watch for signs of formalisation. The fact that discussions are still described as “ongoing” rather than concluded suggests either genuine complexity in structuring the arrangement — plausible, given the scale of the parties involved — or that the two sides are still working through commercial terms. Either way, a tie-up of this size between a major European reinsurer and one of Japan’s largest institutional capital sources would be a notable data point for cross-border reinsurance capital flows.

JDCC View
We flagged this one previously specifically to track whether it firmed up into a formal deal — it hasn’t yet, but it also hasn’t gone away, which is itself worth noting. We’re keeping it open on the follow-up list rather than treating the lack of resolution as a sign it’s stalled.