Insurer to settle $415 million in asbestos claims

An insurance company has agreed to pay $415 million to settle asbestos claims against a unit of McDermott International Inc.
The agreement between McDermott's Babcock & Wilcox unit and Equitas Ltd., the reinsurer for Lloyd's insurance underwriters, was announced Tuesday. It must be approved by a judge supervising the federal bankruptcy case of Babcock & Wilcox and McDermott's board of directors, said John Nedder, McDermott's general counsel.

Babcock & Wilcox, which makes a steam generators, sought bankruptcy protection in February 2000 largely because of expenses related to asbestos injury lawsuits.

The unit won court approval in October for its plan to come out of bankruptcy by putting $1.75 billion of assets into a trust to pay more than 222,000 asbestos injury claims.

Equitas was set up in 1996 to deal with massive exposure faced by London-based Lloyd's that threatened to bankrupt the world's oldest insurance market.