When the annual Rendez-vous de Septembre kicks-off on the 9th of September in Monte Carlo, this year’s renewal season will take its start. In Europe, Peak Re aims to further expand the meaningful portfolio that the company has successfully established in the past three years, since it commenced its global expansion beyond its Asian origin.
Following its motto to continue on its proven growth path in Europe, Peak Re intends to expand its shares with existing and new clients, with its unique underwriting approach of writing across the board, looking at the profitability of a client rather than focusing on single lines of business, and where it is convinced to be able to add value as well as capacity.
Focus on Western Europe
Peak Re’s focus is on the Western Europe regions, including the UK domestic market – building and expanding a footprint in those European markets. Most of its European clients are small to mid- sized insurers that are frequently mutual insurers or pursue an approach of mutuality to reinsuring their risks. In line with its client focus in Asia, also in Europe, Peak Re aims to build relationships with its cedants over time, growing jointly and steadily extending the coverage across all classes of its client’s risks.
Peak Re typically supports clients which treat reinsurance as a capital substitute to protect their capital position. With the introduction of Solvency II, this client segment is keen to assure its capital adequacy through quota-share arrangements which extend across the whole portfolio and contribute to stabilise the results over time.
Since its foundation in late 2012, Peak Re has built a global portfolio with a premium volume of USD 1.1 billion in 2017. Last year the company wrote 18% of its book of business in its Europe, the Middle East and Africa region. The technical profitability of its book has also been positive for Europe too. Overall, the company’s results strongly benefit from Peak Re’s lean and cost-efficient business approach. Last year the company achieved an administrative expense ratio of just 3.5%, which allows Peak Re to act flexibly and to capitalise on changes in the market. Part of Peak Re’s recipe for success is its “one underwriting platform”, which complementary links between Hong Kong headquarters and Zurich subsidiary. Markets, underwriting and analytics perform as one team which follows an identical approach, pursues the same set of guidelines and writes against a single capital base.
In Europe, Peak Re already assumes some lead positions on selected programmes. However, most clients team-up with the company because they appreciate its underwriting approach and its strong, un-correlated capital base, which is offered by a team of experienced underwriters who are well familiar with the domestic European insurance markets. The Zurich based subsidiary, which is licensed by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, FINMA, since late 2016, provides Peak Re with full Solvency II equivalency and a strong sales proposition, as it underlines the company’s commitment to the European insurance markets and its intention of maintaining close proximity to clients and markets.
Cedants are also interested in Peak Re’s expertise in Asia’s fast-growing insurance markets and which of those trends and developments from there may also bear fruit in Europe.
Peak Re’s Markets team, Europe has more than 23 years of industry experience in average
