Hannover Re expands 13% at January renewals

Hannover Re has expanded the premium volume in traditional property/casualty (P&C) reinsurance by 12.7 percent, according to a Feb. 7 press release.

The figure excludes facultative reinsurance, ILS business and structured reinsurance.

After several years of declining reinsurance prices reinsurers successfully pushed the overall price level higher, according to Hannover Re.

Even under loss-free reinsurance programmes from scarcely impacted regions it was generally possible to obtain a premium at least on a par with the previous year.

Furthermore, moderate premium increases were booked for a large number of reinsurance treaties that had been spared losses. The rate hikes achieved under loss-impacted programmes sometimes reached double-digit percentages.

At the same time, reinsurers and also the ILS markets did not scale back the available capacity in any area. Iin many instances even more capacity was offered. This excess supply relative to demand meant that rate rises generally remained on the moderate side, as a consequence of which it was still not always possible to secure prices that were commensurate with the risks. Despite this, the rate quality in the reinsurance market improved. As a result, significantly more favourable business opportunities presented themselves to Hannover Re than had been the case in the previous year.

"The outcome of the treaty renewals puts in place a solid platform for achieving the goals that we have set for 2018", CEO Ulrich Wallin said. "In the negotiations we were able to obtain the necessary price increases, expand strategic cooperations and enlarge our shares, thereby generating further growth in many lines of business."

Premium growth was particularly marked in Asia and the UK. Attractive opportunities to expand the portfolio also opened up in North America, the Caribbean and Eastern Europe as well as in the areas of financial solutions and cyber risks.

Of the total premium volume booked in the previous year in traditional P&C reinsurance (excluding facultative business and structured reinsurance) amounting to €7.13 billion. Treaties with a volume of altogether €4.65 billion were up for renewal at Jan.1, 2018. Of this, a premium volume of € 4.29 billion was renewed, while treaties worth €610 million were either cancelled or renewed in modified form. Including increases of €711 million from new treaties and from changes in prices and treaty shares, the total renewed premium volume thus came in at €5.25 billion. At constant exchange rates this is equivalent to an increase of 12.7 percent in traditional reinsurance. Overall, including structured reinsurance, growth of 21.8 percent was booked as at Jan. 1, 2018.

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