Africa Specialty Risks (ASR), the pan-African-focused reinsurance group, has announced the launch of ASR Syndicate 2454 at Lloyd’s, which will be the first in that market to have an African focus on the business it underwrites.
ASR Syndicate 2454 will underwriting business across Africa and will have a planned gross premium of approximately £70 million for this year, beginning writing from today April 26th 2024.
The syndicate will be managed by Apollo and ASR notes it presents an opportunity to Lloyd’s to expand the market’s footprint in African risks.
The syndicate will initially focus on underwriting ASR’s existing lines of business, including Political Risk & Trade Credit, Political Violence and Terrorism, Parametric, Energy, Property, Construction, Liability and Treaty.
There are plans to expand into writing additional lines of business through the syndicate in 2024, subject to necessary approvals.
ASR believes that its extensive network and experience in Africa can bring locally sourced, high quality, African business to the London market.
Part of ASR’s plan for the syndicate is to create Lloyd’s consortia, to follow Syndicate 2454 and help it deploy greater capacity.
ASR says it intends to leverage the Lloyd’s global brand and licences, in order to close the large corporate and specialty capacity gap for clients across Africa
Mikir Shah, CEO of ASR commented on the launch, “We are delighted that Syndicate 2454 is now up and running at Lloyd’s.
“Across ASR, we are building a business whose prime mission is to increase insurance penetration across Africa, and Syndicate 2454 is another positive step in helping us achieve our objective.
“Working with Apollo and Lloyd’s, we hope to be able to bring innovative risk mitigation solutions to the African insurance market and encourage high quality international capital and investment to take advantage of the vast opportunities we see on the continent.”
Only 2% of Lloyd’s existing business comes from Africa, ASR said and believes that its new ASR Syndicate 2454 can help to strategically expand that footprint.
The company also said that Syndicate 2454 at Lloyd’s is expected to complement ASR’s existing binder arrangements with international and local African reinsurers.
Martin Boreham, the Active Underwriter of Syndicate 2454 and Director of Underwriting at ASR added, “This is an exciting development for ASR, an opportunity to provide further capacity to Africa through Lloyd’s, alongside our pre-existing binder relationships.
“Our ambition is to be the go-to Lloyd’s market for Africa, working with other Lloyd’s capacity providers to showcase the opportunities in Africa that we already see for (re)insurers on a daily basis.”
Andrew Gray, Director of Apollo’s Strategic Partner Syndicates also said, “Reaching this fantastic milestone is testament to Apollo and ASR’s hard work, expertise and collaboration. We are proud to be a chosen partner of ASR, who are bringing something new and innovative to the Lloyd’s market, and excited to see what the partnership can produce in the future.”
