Helios Underwriting, the Lloyd’s of London investment and underwriting vehicle, has announced the current mid-point forecasts for its portfolio of syndicate capacity for the 2019 and 2020 years of account, based on 1st quarter 2021 estimates.
The company, which acquires and consolidates private underwriting capacity at Lloyd’s, recorded a capacity position of £80.0 million for the 2020 year of account as at May 12th, 2021.
This figure consisted of £30.8 million capacity retained by Helios and £49.1 million that is ceded to quota share reinsurers.
For the 2019 year of account, Helios reported a £70.3 million capacity position, consisting of £31.3 million retained and £39.0 million reinsured.
And for 2021, Helios states its capacity position as £110.3 million, with £58.6 million retained and £51.6 million reinsured.
The current mid-point forecast for the 2020 year of account is 0.60%, versus a Lloyd’s market average of 0.35%, which implies a Helios outperformance of 0.25%
Similarly, for 2019, the current mid-point forecast is -1.59% (an improvement on a forecast of -2.15% at December 31st, 2020), versus a Lloyd’s market average of -4.80%, again implying a Helios outperformance of 3.21%.
The improvement in the 2019 mid-point foreast reflects the maturing of the year of account and the greater clarity over the reserves required for Covid-19 losses, Helios said. Meanwhile, the breakeven position for the 2020 year of account at this stage reflects the high incidence of natural catastrophes in 2020.
Additionally, Helios noted that the outperformance continues a trend that has prevailed for the last six years, during which time the company’s outperformance has averaged 4.7%.
“As the only listed consolidator of private capital at Lloyd’s, Helios has built a diversified and unique portfolio of insurance risk with top performing syndicates,” said Helios Chief Executive Nigel Hanbury.
“We provide sustainable returns for shareholders through exposure to targeted acquisitions of the capacity of these high quality syndicates, and our strategy is bringing results, with returns on average 4.7% better than the Lloyd’s market itself over recent years, having outperformed the Lloyd’s market every year since 2013 without exception.
Following Helios’s recent £18 million capital raise, Hanbury added that the company is “pursuing opportunities to further build our core portfolio of capacity, to increase the capacity retained by Helios and continue to achieve outperformance against the Lloyd’s market as whole.”
