Barbican Managing Agency seeks partnerships

Barbican’s managing agency is seeking diversification and growth through corporate partnerships, Ian Bremner, managing director of Barbican Managing Agency, told Monte Carlo Today.

Barbican Managing Agency manages Syndicate 1955, Syndicate 1856 and Special Purpose Syndicate 6118.

“We want to be seen more as a diversified manager of third party capital and we have done this already this year with new Arcus Syndicate 1856 backed by Credit Suisse as a corporate partnership,” Bremner said.

“It proves our ability to manage on a third party basis. We’d quite like to do it again, and we are increasingly looking at doing such deals,” he said.

Arcus received approval from the Lloyd’s Franchise Board to begin trading as of January 1, 2016.

In order to boost business, Barbican is trying to strengthen corporate relationships with a few key partners hoping they will bring in a book of business that is attractive to Lloyd’s. Bremner believes Barbican Managing Agency has the ability and credibility to manage on their behalf.

Barbican Managing Agency wants to grow its existing syndicates to about £600 million ($797 million) gross written premiums under management in the next two to three years, Bremner said, adding that it is currently at roughly £450 million ($597 million).

Bremner expects, if market conditions continue as they are, for a material share of that growth to come from new partnerships.

The Lloyd’s society might help Barbican with its plans.

“If we were for example looking at a far Eastern potential partner, the fact that Lloyd’s has a registered reinsurance business in Shanghai is potentially hugely attractive to any given prospect,” Bremner said.

There is still a strong pipeline of interested parties out there who think that Lloyd’s is a great place to set up shop, Bremner said. “There are, however, only a very small number of agents who have the ability and credibility to manage on a third party basis,” he concluded.