Ann: QBE UPDATES THE MARKET ON FY17 RESULTS EXPECTATIONS, page-40

He mightn't have been up to it - i don't have a view either way - but to have some idea of the absolute disaster O'Neal inherited, you have to look at QBE in a 20-year context. O'Halloran was the CEO from 1998-2012, and during that time he completed so many acquisitions that QBE themselves literally had no idea how many companies they'd bought. It started to unravel in 2011, and has simply continued to unravel since then.

The class action to which you refer was in respect of a period of poor disclosure regarding profit outlooks in late 2013, by which stage Neal had been in the job about a year. Given the byzantine complexity replete with dozens of landmines acquired over the preceding 15 years that had been left to him, it's not at all surprising that O'Neal and the board's 2013 profit guidance turned out to be way off the mark. Insurance is a complex business where things can go terribly wrong, very quickly, but problems can be obscured for years as well if you twist the arms of the accountants/actuaries.