Swiss Re's CEO Aigrain resigns

ZURICH: Swiss Reinsurance Co, which has warned investors it expects to lose 1 billion francs ($864 million) for 2008, said Thursday its chief executive Jacques Aigrain is stepping down.

The company said the board of directors accepted Aigrain's resignation and appointed Stefan Lippe, his deputy, as his successor. Aigrain had come under increasing pressure in recent weeks for his aggressive investment policies in financial instruments that had gone bad.

The announcement came a week after the reinsurer issued the profit warning, announced it would get a capital injection of 3 billion francs from U.S. investor Warren Buffett's company and was looking for another 2 billion francs on the capital markets.

``Stefan Lippe brings hands-on expertise, a clear strategic focus and a reputation for delivery of bottom-line results,'' said Peter Forstmoser, chairman of the board.

Forstmoser said that under Aigrain's leadership Swiss Re had made several major acquisitions, including the Insurance Solutions operations from General Electric.

Swiss Re said Aigrain will remain with the company until Wednesday for the transition to Lippe, 53, now chief operating officer and deputy CEO.

The share price, which plunged nearly 40 per cent last week, rose 4.96 per cent to 19.88 francs ($17.17) on the Zurich exchange Thursday.

In its preliminary earnings announcement a week ago Swiss Re said it had writedowns of approximately 6 billion francs ($5.2 billion) for the full year to offset strong underwriting performance.

Analysts took the injection from Buffett's Omaha, Neb-based company - which already held 3 per cent of Swiss Re shares -as a vote of confidence.

The new investment can be converted in three years into conventional Swiss Re shares at a price of 25 francs per share. If Berkshire converts all of its new investment into stock, it would control roughly one-quarter of Swiss Re.

Swiss Re, the world's second-largest reinsurer, formally reports its full-year results Feb 19.