Hiscox eyes further increase in ILS fundraising; should benefit from flight to quality: CEO

Hiscox will continue to increase the sums of third-party capital brought on board to fund its reinsurance business.

"I expect the ILS business to continue to grow," chief executive officer Aki Hussain (pictured) told his company's Q4 earnings conference. "We continue to see third party capital as part of our strategy."

Hussain admitted to having had higher hopes that the market might reward Hiscox to a greater degree versus rivals given the outperformance. His company's flagship fund brags of a history written solely in black.

"You begin to see, not as much as hoped, some bifurcation of the market and flight to quality," Hussain said.

Hiscox's Re & ILS division brought in $190 million in gross inflows into ILS in 2021, then topped up with another $217 million at the January reinsurance renewals. That put Hiscox into the new year with an ILS assets under management tally of $1.6 billion.

The larger Hiscox Re & ILS unit, also including reinsurance of primary carriers, showed 8.7% growth in gross written premium in 2021 to $807.8 million and swung to an underwriting profit of $91.1 million from a prior year loss. The gain came despite a heavy $122 million nat cat loss.

The unit's results included $40 million in net fee income from 2021 issuance, officials added.

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