PROFITABLE STAGNATION
This leads to what insurance executives like PartnerRe Chief Executive Patrick Thiele call "profitable stagnation," where reinsurers see limited premium growth but remain in the black.

However, reinsurers do not have a good track record for maintaining discipline when faced with low premium growth and in the past have tried to grab market share by cutting prices.

Credit rating agency Moody's highlighted that risk on Friday in changing its outlook on the sector to negative from stable.

"Many signs point to greater price competition in 2010," Moody's said in its Global Reinsurance Outlook report.

"The industry is running with more capacity in the short term and demand appears flat," said Moody's analyst Kevin Lee.

Many insurers surveyed by Moody's said they did not plan to buy more reinsurance next year and some expected to buy less.

A surfeit of cash this year could also lead to more consolidation moves this year, analysts said, after PartnerRe agreed to acquire rival Paris Re two months ago.

Reinsurers are also expected to discuss the impact of low interest rates and the outlook for inflation, the drag on insurance premiums from the recession and how to breathe life back into the market for insurance-linked securities like hurricane catastrophe bonds.

But prices for basic reinsurance will be the main focus.

"With January 2010 renewals likely to disappoint, we are concerned that reinsurers could lag other insurance stocks," said RBS's Tremblay.

Munich Re's share price has fallen by more than 6 percent while that of the second-biggest player, Swiss Re, is down nearly 10 percent so far this year, compared with an 8 percent gain in the DJ Stoxx European insurance sector index.

However, share prices for the fourth and fifth-ranked reinsurers, Hannover Re and Scor, are up 33 percent and 11 percent, respectively. Jonathan Gould