ZURICH, Feb 12 (Reuters) - The chief executive of troubled reinsurer Swiss Re, Jacques Aigrain, is stepping down a week after U.S. investor Warren Buffett stepped in with new capital and the group reported a big loss.
The world's second biggest reinsurer said deputy chief executive Stefan Lippe has been appointed to replace Aigrain.
"Having taken measures to reinforce the group's capital strength and further de-risk its investment portfolio, the interests of Swiss Re are now best served by a change in executive leadership," Aigrain said in a statement.
"Stefan Lippe has been the architect of Swiss Re's focus on disciplined, quality underwriting in the reinsurance business."
Aigrain, a former JP Morgan investment banker who joined Swiss Re in June 2001 as head of Financial Services and became chief executive at the start of 2006 in a bid to boost Swiss Re's performance, which had been unspectacular under former CEO John Coomber.
Aigrain's successor Lippe is a 53-year-old German who has worked for Swiss Re for 25 years. Until he took over as deputy chief executive and chief operating officer in September 2008 he led the group's property and casualty and life and health underwriting units.
"I am clear about the challenges that Swiss Re needs to address," Lippe said in a statement.
"Our core re/insurance portfolio is sound. We are focused on meeting our clients' needs, creating shareholder value and providing quality career opportunities in a stimulating business environment."
When Swiss Re made the surprise announcement a week ago that Buffett was investing 3 billion Swiss francs ($2.60 billion) in the form of convertible permanent capital instruments it also said it made suffered a net loss in 2008 of around 1 billion francs and would disband its financial markets activities.
Swiss Re shares have lost almost two thirds of their value since the beginning of this year, underperfoming the world's biggest reinsurer, Munich Re, and the fourth biggest player Hannover Re.
Buffett's move through Berkshire Hathaway Inc is the latest in a series of investments he has made in crisis-hit companies, including General Electric Co and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Conversion of Berkshire Hathaway's investment would take its stake in Swiss Re to around 24 to 25 percent. Berkshire is best known for its insurance holdings, which generate about half of overall results and include the reinsurer General Re Corp.
The deal extended a relationship struck between Buffett and Swiss Re just over a year ago, when the billionaire investor's fund took a 3 percent stake in the insurer and 20 percent of its property and casualty reinsurance business. ($1=1.156 Swiss francs) (Reporting by Sven Egenter and Emma Thomasson; Editing by Greg Mahlich)
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