Travelers Property Casualty Corp

A federal bankruptcy judge approved a plan by Travelers Property Casualty Corp. to pay $500 million to settle claims against the insurer by people with asbestos-related diseases linked to asbestos maker Johns Manville Corp. More than 600,000 people sued Travelers claiming that it knew about the hazards of asbestos and failed to disclose them over the course of 30 years as Manville's primary insurer.

Travelers Property Casualty Corp. added $2.45 billion to reserves for asbestos-related claims, leading to the insurer's first annual loss since it was formed six years ago. The third-largest U.S. property-casualty insurer, spun off last year by Citigroup Inc., expects a net loss of $793 million, or 79 cents a share, in the fourth quarter. For 2002, Travelers expects a loss of $27 million, or 3 cents a share.

St. Paul Cos. on Monday agreed to buy larger rival Travelers Property Casualty Corp. for $16.4 billion in stock, creating the second-largest commercial property insurer in the country. The new company would have an unmatched presence among commercial line insurers in nearly half of all U.S. states, with more than $100 billion in assets and $15.6 billion in combined premiums. Only American International Group Inc. would be larger. The deal also represents a homecoming of sorts for St.

Travelers Property Casualty Corp.'s shares notched solid gains in Friday's trading debut, bucking the market's down trend, after the Citigroup Inc. unit generated $3.88 billion in the biggest U.S. initial public offering this year and the biggest insurance industry IPO ever. Travelers, which trades under the ticker symbol TAP/A, climbed $1.06 to close at $19.56 on the New York Stock Exchange. With trading volume of 86.2 million shares, it was by far the Big Board's most active issue.

Construction is underway in Diamond Bar on two regional headquarters that when completed are expected to bring in as many as 1,100 jobs and generate more than $8 million a year in sales for local stores and services. Work on a 170,000-square-foot complex for Travelers Property Casualty Corp. and on 125,000 square feet of space for Allstate Corp.'s Allstate Insurance subsidiary is expected to be finished by early next year.