Helios Underwriting has announced a £108,000 operating loss for the first half of 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic causing a reduction in underwriting profits.
The company says cumulative rate increases since 1 January 2018 are 28%.
Losses of £5 million have been reserved for COVID-19 by the supported syndicates, of which 85% attaches to the 2019 year.
Helios says the quota share reinsurers shoulder £3.5 million of this loss, so the impact on the underwriting profits was £1.5 million.
Stop loss reinsurance is bought for the remaining 30% to limit the group’s exposure in the event of large underwriting losses.
The disputes over business interruption coverage are largely outside Lloyds and are not expected to impact Helios’ portfolio.
“These interim results reflect syndicate Covid losses recognised during the period, but our exposure on the 2020 open underwriting year has been greatly reduced through quota share reinsurance,” said
Nigel Hanbury, Chief Executive.
“Our pro-forma Adjusted NAV per share remains robust, reflecting the quality of our portfolio and has increased to £2.07 per share.”
“Current market conditions have opened up an exciting window of opportunity for Helios: the opportunity to increase our retained exposure by reducing the quota share cession and through targeted acquisitions of LLV’s.
“We have an attractive pipeline of these, which we are actively evaluating. We also continue to explore options to finance the additional capital required, including a potential fundraising.”
