Compre eyes market possibilities

Legacy specialist Compre is eying future deals in the European market as it awaits completion of its recent acquisition by CBPE Capital.

Nick Steer, chief executive of Compre, said the acquisition will give the company, which specialises in run-off business, access to more financial muscle.

Steer said the company was already seeing the benefits of the new financial backing.

“We have one new deal completed, three underway and another in the pipeline,” he told Monte Carlo Today. Although he could not go into any further details, due to confidentiality issues, he did add that at present the run-off market is opening up a lot, with the London Market advancing and the European market catching up.

Will Bridger, managing director of acquisitions at Compre, added that the German market especially was opening up. “The key recent event has been the activity that took place last year, when Munich Re and Allianz both announced deals. Hopefully after this other firms will follow their lead.”

In the meantime Compre will continue to focus its activity in Europe, as at present UK run-off deals tend to be either quite small or very large. The impact of Solvency II will be carefully monitored by the company, as many market participants are still assessing just what they will have to do under the new regime.

Compre is also watching events in the US, which has the biggest run-off market in the world, and which is also the location of many of the company's liabilities.