Latest France Headlines

All the headlines from our France Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Drone Flies Within 20 Feet of Air France Jet Above Paris; Investigation Under Way

Mar 4 2016 // A drone came within 5 meters (20 feet) of a potentially catastrophic collision with an Air France plane coming in to land at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, marking one of the closest encounters so far between one of the...

Chubb Names Product Line & Customer Segment Leaders for Continental Europe

Mar 4 2016 // Chubb has appointed the team that will lead product line underwriting and distribution for its Continental Europe region. Each of the newly announced positions will report to Steve Reiss, chief operating officer,...

Chubb Names Country Presidents to Lead Continental European Operations

Feb 5 2016 // Chubb has appointed the country presidents who will lead its operations in Continental Europe, with immediate effect. The country presidents will report to Jeff Moghrabi, division president, Continental Europe. These and...

Axa Buying France’s Tallest Building, Tour First

Jan 22 2016 // Axa Investment Managers Real Assets, the property unit of the French insurer, agreed to buy France’s tallest skyscraper from affiliates of Beacon Capital Partners. Axa is buying Tour First on behalf of a group of...

Bial-Portela Drug Trial Halted When 6 Are Hospitalized; One Person Is Brain Dead

Jan 15 2016 // Clinical testing on an experimental drug from Bial-Portela & Ca. SA, a closely held Portuguese company, led to six patients being hospitalized in France including one person who was put on life support and diagnosed as...

France’s CNP Assurances in Talks to Buy BTG’s Brazil Insurance Units

Jan 13 2016 // French insurer CNP Assurances has entered exclusive talks with Grupo BTG Pactual SA to buy its 51 percent stake in Brazilian insurer Pan Seguros, two sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. CNP Assurances has...

World’s Top 10 Insurers Ranked by Premium, Assets

Jan 4 2016 // The world’s largest insurer as measured by 2014 net premiums written is UnitedHealth Group Inc., according to a ranking by A.M. Best of the world’s largest insurance companies. France’s AXA S.A. kept its...

Willis Completes Acquisition of France’s Gras Savoye

Dec 30 2015 // Willis Group Holdings plc, the global risk advisory, re/insurance broking, and human capital and benefits firm, announced the completion of its acquisition of Gras Savoye, the leading French insurance broker. On April 22,...

Fitch’s Sector Outlook for UK Non-Life: Stable – French Non-Life: Negative

Dec 17 2015 // Fitch Ratings has issued reports on both the UK and the French non-life insurance sectors. The UK report indicates that “operating conditions within the UK non-life company market are expected to remain stable in...

The Perilous North Atlantic – Europe’s War Time American Lifeline

Nov 10 2015 // Crossing the North Atlantic on a modern ocean liner is a pleasant and mostly uneventful experience these days. But gazing into the depths of the presently rather stormy ocean evokes the past, and the deadly conflicts,...

Lance Armstrong Settles Tour de France Case with SCA Promotions

Oct 5 2015 // With a payment and an apology, Lance Armstrong has settled a decade-long dispute with a promotions insurer that sought repayment of more than $10 million in bonuses it paid the former cyclist during a career that was later...

Europe’s Rich Families – Such as EXOR’s Agnellis – Turn Dealmakers

Sep 29 2015 // John Elkann, the leader of Italy’s billionaire Agnelli family, has a way of preparing his relatives for a big takeover battle that you won’t see at your everyday company. In June, he gathered two branches of...

Armstrong Settles with Dallas Insurer Over Tour de France Bonuses

Sep 28 2015 // Lance Armstrong settled a cycling promotion court fight on confidential terms but still has a lawsuit over a U.S. Postal Service sponsorship to contend with. Armstrong settled two related lawsuits with SCA Promotions Inc....

France Expands Search for MH 370 Debris at Malaysia’s Request

Aug 7 2015 // The French government has responded to a request from Malaysia for more help in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane. France said it would send planes, boats and helicopters to scour the coast of the remote...

AXA’s First-Half 2015 Profits up 2.3% on U.S., French Life Insurance Gains

Aug 4 2015 // French insurer AXA SA said first-half profit rose 2.3 percent, helped by higher life-insurance earnings in the U.S. and France. Net income at France’s biggest insurer climbed to €3.08 billion ($3.37 billion) from...

Two Uber Executives Detained by French Police Pending Investigation

Jun 30 2015 // French police have detained two executives from Uber for questioning as a government clampdown intensifies on the U.S.-based taxi and ride-sharing service. Thibaud Simphal, manager of Uber France, and Pierre-Dimitri...

‘All at Sea:’ Australia’s Search for MH370 Wreckage Under Scrutiny

May 28 2015 // Nearly a year after embarking on a multi-million dollar quest to solve one of aviation’s greatest unsolved mysteries, authorities and search teams are being criticized over their approach to finding Flight MH370 in...

Willis Makes Firm Offer for Remaining Shares of French Broker Gras Savoye

Apr 23 2015 // Willis Group Holdings plc announced that it has made a firm offer to acquire the remaining 70 per cent that it does not currently own of French insurance broker Gras Savoye, and to accelerate closing the transaction....

Air Algerie Mali Crash Linked to Icing and Pilot Error, French Investigator Says

Apr 6 2015 // The crash of Air Algerie MD-83 in Mali last July, an accident that claimed 116 lives, was triggered by the icing of pressure probes after pilots failed to turn on anti-icing systems, investigators said. When the probes...

Co-Pilot Likely Crashed Germanwings A320 Deliberately: French Prosecutor

Mar 26 2015 // The co-pilot of the Germanwings airliner that crashed in the French Alps killing all 150 people aboard appears to have brought the A320 Airbus down deliberately, the Marseille prosecutor said on Thursday. German Andreas...