Africa Specialty Risks Begins Operating as Lloyd’s Service Company
Africa Specialty Risks (ASR), the pan-African and Middle East-focused reinsurance group, announced that has begun operating as a Lloyd’s service company.
As a Lloyd’s service company, ASR’s UK based entity, Africa Specialty Risks Ltd. (ASR Ltd.), is underwriting on behalf of ASR Syndicate 2454
This development enhances ASR’s distribution network, providing brokers in Africa and the Middle East better and more efficient access to the Lloyd’s market through its service company.
ASR Ltd. is now able to write up to USD $10 million per risk across its political violence and terrorism, energy, construction, property, and liability lines of business, with additional lines to be added, subject to necessary approvals.
This development enables ASR to leverage Lloyd’s global brand and licenses to close the capacity gap across Africa. It also complements ASR’s existing partnerships with other international and local African reinsurers, assisting ASR’s partners in retaining risk effectively, while enhancing Lloyd’s existing footprint in and across the continent.
Martin Boreham is the active underwriter of Syndicate 2454 and a director of underwriting at ASR. ASR Syndicate 2454 was set up to increase high quality capacity for the African market, with the initial aim to write gross premium of approximately £70 million for 2024.
“This is another milestone in helping us achieve our objective of closing the insurance gap in Africa, providing access to local African brokers and enabling us to better distribute our Lloyd’s capacity on the continent, while maintaining the highest standards of service and reliability,” commented Mikir Shah, CEO of ASR, in a statement.
This development will allow ASR Syndicate 2454 to leverage the market presence of Africa Specialty Risks and its distribution network, according to Boreham. “This agreement provides African brokers access to the A+ paper of Lloyd’s and is a step towards our ambition of being the go-to Lloyd’s market for the continent.”
“This development will significantly improve market access, providing a more efficient route to our clients, and further galvanising our market in London as the go-to place for African risks,” said Amit Khilosia, regional head of Africa, Lloyd’s.
Backed by private equity firm Helios Investment Partners, ASR has operations in London, Mauritius, Bermuda, Morocco. Since its launch in 2020, ASR has participated in the derisking of $28 billion of projects and assets across 66 countries. In 2024, ASR launched Syndicate 2454, which is the first African-focused syndicate writing business at Lloyd’s.
ASR underwrites across political risk, trade credit, political violence & terrorism, property, energy, construction, liability, parametric and treaty. ASR also offers an end-to-end captive solution to corporate and financial institutions.