Schroder Secquaero’s Ruoff sees ILS market challenges, but business ‘is in strong position’

Schroder Secquaero is in a strong position, but the market challenges are not small, creating an interesting moment for the business, according to Stephan Ruoff on his second day in the new role of deputy head of the firm.

He told SIRC Today: “The business has an amazing track record, which is in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) space. The relative performance is excellent.

“The team has a very strong risk management culture and has built the company and the ILS manager on this risk management culture, which leads to very robust valuation frameworks.”
While Ruoff’s view is one made with fresh eyes, it is backed by heavyweight experience he was previously group CEO of Tokio Millennium Re.

“The challenges are not small. 2017 and 2018, and now 2019, are really testing the reinsurance markets in the broader sense.

“They are also testing the convergence capital space. Large loss activity, a tightening retrocessional market, high M&A activity and a few ILS fallouts, which we have to mention, have created an interesting landscape,” he said.

He said that going forward, convincing investors that ILS remains attractive as a class and evolving business models that learn more about the lines between reinsurance and asset management “will definitely keep us on our toes”.

Ruoff added: “If you look at that mix of elements in the space it is indeed a very interesting and challenging moment.

“After many years of consistent growth and success, having those moments of rebuilding and testing the resilience are usually good for quality players such as Schroder Secquaero.”
He added that the firm had never been a price-driven player in the market.

“It’s very early days for me to comment on it, but the perception on joining the team is that we will continue with the same stringent underwriting of risk and the same stringent evaluation for investors built on technical approaches,” he concluded.