Editorial Briefing
Compre has renewed its Renewable Loss Portfolio Transfer agreement with Wakam, extending legacy reserve support across the insurer’s French-origin books. The renewal continues the original 2025 arrangement, which covered approximately €140 million of reserves as at 31 December 2024, spanning UK and French motor and property lines.

Why It Matters
Renewals rarely make headlines the way new deals do, but they’re the better signal of whether a structure actually works in practice. Wakam choosing to extend rather than let the arrangement lapse or shop for an alternative counterparty says more about Compre’s execution on the original transfer than the initial deal announcement ever could.

JDCC View
The renewal is the quiet vote of confidence. A one-off RLPT proves a structure can be agreed; a renewal proves it delivered what both sides expected once the reserves were actually run off.

Editorial Briefing
PwC’s latest run-off market tracking shows liabilities reaching $2.57 billion year-to-date, spanning 18 publicly announced deals across 8 acquirers — a robust recovery after a slow first half of 2026.

Why It Matters
This follows directly from PwC’s H1 report flagged in Issue 17, which showed just 13 disclosed deals worth $780 million for the first half — roughly half the volume of H1 2025. The jump to $2.57bn year-to-date confirms PwC’s own prediction that H2 would see notable closes, and suggests the softer pricing environment discussed elsewhere in this issue is starting to show up in actual transaction volume rather than just sentiment.

JDCC View
Eight acquirers across eighteen deals is a market with real breadth, not just a handful of repeat buyers padding the numbers. Worth watching whether that spread holds into Q4 or narrows back toward the usual specialist five.

Editorial Briefing
Willis Re has appointed Neil Eckert as Chief Executive Officer, marking a leadership change at the global reinsurance broker.

Why It Matters
Leadership changes at broker level tend to ripple into how legacy and run-off mandates get originated and prioritised — a new CEO’s strategic priorities can reshape which parts of the book get pushed toward the market.

JDCC View
Too early to call direction from an appointment alone. Worth flagging as a name to watch for signals in Willis Re’s next few quarterly moves rather than drawing conclusions now.

Editorial Briefing
Marco Capital’s acquisition of Pro Global has grown in scale since its original announcement in Issue 18, with the combined group now spanning 15 offices and approximately 1,400 staff across Lloyd’s, the London market and international insurance markets. The deal continues to combine with Marco’s existing PoloWorks arm, reuniting two firms with a shared Gloucester origin. The transaction remains subject to regulatory approval.

Why It Matters
The staff and office count firming up between issues shows this isn’t a static announcement — the deal’s footprint is still being defined as due diligence and integration planning progress, which is exactly the kind of detail Stop Press exists to catch before the next full issue.

JDCC View
1,400 staff across 15 offices puts this firmly in the “largest specialist insurance services groups” bracket Marco itself claimed at announcement. Regulatory approval is now the only real gate left before this reshapes the competitive landscape for specialist services.