Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS), Allianz Group’s specialist carrier for corporate insurance business, has opened a new reinsurance branch in Mumbai, India to help it target growth in Asia Pacific.
AGCS said that the branch would allow it to capitalise on opportunities in one of the fastest emerging re/insurance markets and better serve global corporate clients with business interests in India.
The Indian government amended regulations to open up the reinsurance market to foreign companies in 2016, and Allianz obtained the necessary reinsurance license from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) earlier last year.
Several global re/insurers currently operate branches in the Indian market, including Munich Re, Swiss Re, SCOR, Hannover Re, RGA, AXA, and Gen Re, as well as re/insurance marketplace Lloyd’s of London, although IRDAI continues to give first refusal in reinsurance contracts to the country’s only active domestic reinsurer, GIC Re.
AGCS revealed that its India branch will initially offer facultative, proportional and non-proportional reinsurance solutions for property, liability, marine, financial lines, construction & engineering, and energy.
It will be led by CB Murali, an Indian national, who has over 35 years of property & casualty (P&C) re/insurance experience in both international and India markets.
Murali was previously head of the Global Risks division at Bajaj Allianz, the joint insurance venture Allianz and the Bajaj Group of India, which has worked closely with AGCS since 2013.
In particular, AGCS sees opportunities for its Indian branch in large scale construction projects under the $106 billion Bharatmala infrastructure development plan, as well as in the automotive, electronics and high-tech communication industries.
The company is also anticipating demand for reinsurance capacity for cyber and initial public offering (IPO) insurance due to a strong digitalisation push among regional businesses.
“India’s continued rapid growth and the opening up of the domestic reinsurance market to foreign owned insurers makes it the ripe time to have our own branch in the country,” said Sinéad Browne, AGCS Board Member and Chief Regions and Markets Officer for Asia Pacific.
“This will allow us to better help clients navigate the continually evolving risk landscape with local underwriting and risk management expertise,” she added. “India has huge potential to develop into a major reinsurance hub in Asia and we aim to part of this future success story.”
The AGCS India branch will also benefit multinational clients with Indian business interests by providing the company with larger access and priority to business ceded by Indian insurers than it would have as a foreign-based reinsurer.
Mark Mitchell, Regional Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for AGCS Asia Pacific, commented: “India has long been a key part of AGCS’s regional portfolio, and I look forward to the even closer collaboration with our business partners that this local branch will allow.”
“As a leading global player in the reinsurance industry, the set-up of AGCS India will strengthen the expertise acquired by our previous operations in the India market and help us meet our clients’ continually changing needs,” he continued.
With the addition of this latest branch, AGCS is now present in 11 countries and 16 cities in Asia Pacific, including Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, China, Indonesia, Brunei, Myanmar, Australia, and New Zealand.
