Beazley Reports Q1 Premiums Up 6% to $546 Million
Beazley plc reported that first quarter premiums grew by 6 percent to $546 million, compared to $516 million in 2014.
Beazley’s largest division, specialty lines, wrote $226 million during the first quarter, which is an increase of 19 percent compared to the first three months of 2014. The life, accident and health division achieved growth of 28 percent, compared to the first quarter of 2014, primarily driven by growth in business written through its U.S. admitted carrier Beazley Insurance Company Inc.
“The growth achieved in these teams helped offset the impact of the competitive trading environment which continues to be experienced across most lines of business,” the company said.
Andrew Horton, chief executive officer, said:
“We managed to offset the impact of the very competitive trading conditions in many of our lines with growth in specialty lines, particularly our cyber related business and life, accident and health where we have been investing. Gross premiums written by our underwriters based in the U.S. grew to $147.9m which represents growth of 36 percent in this business compared to the first quarter of 2014.
“At the end of March 2015, we announced a partnership with Korean Re, a top ten global reinsurer, to develop business together and to establish a special purpose syndicate at Lloyd’s, Syndicate 6050.”
Under the agreement, Syndicate 6050 will write a whole account quota share of Beazley Syndicates 623 and 2623 and Beazley will take a quota share of Korean Re’s commercial lines book. This equates to a reinsurance swap of approximately $20 million in gross premium between Beazley’s managed syndicates and Korean Re.
Beazley said that rates on renewal business decreased by 1 percent across the portfolio as a whole during the first quarter. While specialty lines division experienced rate increases of 4 percent on average, the rating environment remains highly competitive across all other lines of business, the company said.
Rate increases in specialty lines came mainly from parts of the company’s large risk professions portfolio and its technology account.
Source: Beazley plc