A familiar hand
Fuad Kuliyev, CEO, Az Re, talks to Baden Baden Today about the reinsurer’s plans to grow its local market and enter new, yet similar, geographies.
AZ Re, a privately owned reinsurer established in Azerbaijan in 2007 by six shareholders, is set on growing the local market and continuing to support the region’s economy.
Fuad Kuliyev, CEO, Az Re, says that despite the local market being small, it is growing and adds that the reinsurer wants its brokers and retrocessionnaires to listen to the company’s plans while here in Baden.
“We know that current conditions are pretty bad and actually expect to get less out of our meetings in Baden Baden than we put in,” he says. “However times will change and we would like our producing brokers and retrocessionnaires to listen carefully about our plans to develop slowly into similar markets and countries as our own.”
Kuliyev adds that with a surplus of the equivalent of $64 million and gross premiums written at $46 million, more than 95 percent of which are domestically sourced and returned a combined ratio of under 70 percent over the past three years, Az Re has a market share of 50 percent of all reinsurance premiums from its market. The reinsurer was also assigned a rating of B+(stable) by AM Best in 2014.
“Our main purpose is to provide support to our local market which is growing but still small and so needs local assistance for local problems.
In addition, we play a role through our earthquake pool in de-risking and supporting the economy,” he says.
“Of course we also write business and aim to develop our international business in nearby markets; primarily we are a market for facultative business.”
Kuliyev adds that despite the company’s enthusiasm to share its intentions, the fall in the price of oil affects certain parts of the economy.
“Despite the oil price, we still see an increase in the market and our own position is strong with nearly 20 percent of our assets in foreign currency; we are also very liquid with 75 percent of our assets in cash,” he explains.
“The reinsurance market is less of a challenge to us as, unlike other reinsurers, we are not reliant on the international markets for our existence and are not under pressure to grow.”
Fuad Kuliyev is the CEO at Az Re. He can be contacted at: fkuliyev@azre.az.
