Q-Re posts 43% growth despite shrinking cat
Q-Re, the Qatar-based reinsurer, expects to have grown its book by 43 percent in this year’s January renewals, despite pulling out of some business it regarded as unprofitable.
The reinsurer expects to have written $269 million of property, casualty and speciality lines in the January renewals.
“We recorded the fastest growth in North American property and credit and surety business as well as in the aviation segment where we basically started from scratch,” said Willi Schuerch, Q-Re chief underwriting officer.
“We chose to shrink our international property-catastrophe business by 10 percent while increasing marine premiums only slightly by 15 percent, as Q-Re remains committed to active portfolio management. In some lines such as marine declinature ratios of up to 70 percentages were reflective of a continuously challenging environment.”
Q-Re reported 20 to 30 percent growth in its established specialty business such as agriculture and casualty.
“Our underwriting teams managed to significantly increase our shares in profitable business and successfully established new client relationships. Q-Re also bolstered its presence in the Lloyd’s Market through new participations. At the same time, we opted for significant reductions of renewed business in lines and territories where our profitability criteria were not met,” said Gunther Saacke, Q-Re chief executive officer.
