Following the response Ageas Re received from the market in its inaugural year of operation, the company is now looking to expand its portfolio with opportunities in the Casualty space.
Ageas stated: “As a key engine for future growth Ageas Re remains set on becoming a full-service reinsurer in the long term with a presence across all the main lines of business and geographies.
“With an initial focus on Property the company is now looking to further diversify by balancing out the portfolio with opportunities in the Casualty space, as a start, mainly in motor third party liability reinsurance. The expansion will be gradual by both business and geography.”
As both a buyer and seller of reinsurance Ageas Re faces a number of challenges and opportunities in 2023, the company noted.
As a buyer of reinsurance, the annual renewal process was of course a challenging one, reflecting hard market conditions. But as a seller the story was different, Ageas stated.
At the start of the year, the market was craving new capacity. It was with this background when Ageas Re was welcomed as a highly credible new trading partner by both brokers and clients, backed by the credibility of a well-respected insurance group with strong balance sheet and ratings.
“The timing was right. The opportunity was there. And we were open for business. From our target portfolio for 2023 almost all programmes have been completed with the maximum allocation we had hoped to achieve at the outset,” said Ageas.
For the insurer, 2023 was a year of building strong foundations, launching Ageas Re in the open market came on the back of nine successful years of reinsurance internally.
Becoming a seller of reinsurance required new people, new processes, and a whole new infrastructure including a new office in Zurich.
With many reinsurers choosing to exit or reduce exposure to the market in recent times, Ageas has been able to access and recruit world class talent from well reputed global reinsurers and an entire team from a local Belgium reinsurer.
As one of Ageas’ four growth engines, Ageas Re is also making progress against the Impact24 strategy not just by selling third party reinsurance but also by unlocking the value of the core.
This includes initiatives such as centralising the reinsurance purchase of all property lines across the different entities to provide significantly better coverage to the Group overall.
Ageas highlighted: “While there has been strong growth in the property side of the portfolio, longer term Ageas Re is seeking a better balance between Property and Casualty and this will start to gain momentum in 2024.
“Thanks to the talent and experience we have attracted over the past year, we are keen to harvest our expertise in Latin America by leveraging that talent and putting in place local licences and infrastructure that allow us to engage with brokers and clients. Just 12 months ago Ageas Re set out a robust plan of action. 12 months on, the results speak for themselves.”
