Fears for insurance industry

Sax Riley, chief executive of Sedgwick, Britain's biggest insurance broker, said yesterday that the collapse of Lloyd's of London would be a disaster for the insurance industry worldwide and "an unmitigated tragedy for the UK".

Mr Riley's comments came as he presented Sedgwick's 1994 results, which showed a 34 per cent rise in profits to £94.4m before tax .The underlying growth in brokerage and fees was 3 per cent compared with a 1 per cent underlying increase in expenses, with particulary strong growth from the European and North American businesses.The results were in line with market forecasts and the shares gained 3p to 163p.