Canopius has been adding new treaty underwriters to its reinsurance business as it positions itself for further market softening in the 1/1 renewals.
Last year, APAC Chief Executive Officer Soon Keen (SK) Lee told (Re)in Asia that she wanted a more even split between Canopius’ reinsurance and direct insurance books.
Lee says that things are “on track”, adding that last year was about engaging with clients, while this year will be about expanding into new areas and working out where value can be added to the market.
“It’s all to do with resources,” says Lee. “When you have limited resources, you have to take a pre-emptive position. With a bigger team, it is easier for us to take a view on the business of our current clients.”
Soon Keen Lee
APAC Chief Executive Officer at CanopiusHeading into the 1.1 renewals last year, Canopius had two treaty underwriters in the region, both on the property side. The specialty (re)insurer has now added another two underwriters – one for property and the other for casualty side. Both are based in Singapore.
“For the upcoming renewals, our primary goal is to deliver exceptional value and service to our clients,” says Lee. “In the current environment, it is important to stay relevant and differentiate ourselves. This is about creating a solid value proposition for our key business partners within the markets where we operate.”
The two new underwriters will help strengthen Canopius’ property business and expand into casualty – something that is becoming a popular diversification move to offset the risk of nat cat losses. These underwriters will also help in further developing the specialty side of the business, selling more products to existing clients.
“Our enhanced underwriting team offers us a greater capability to connect with clients we already have a strong relationship with, and allows us to cross-sell into various other sectors,” says Lee.
Jesse DeCouto, Chief Underwriting Officer for Canopius, based in Bermuda, says the (re)insurer’s approach to APAC aligns with its global strategy.
“We want to make sure that we have a consistent approach across markets, so that when people buy from us, they know that they will enjoy long-term stability and a high level of service,” says DeCouto.
“At the same time, this strategy has to be regionally executed. We’ve invested in APAC so that we can have people on the ground who understand the territories, understand the culture and understand what our clients need.”
Jesse DeCouto
Chief Underwriting Officer at CanopiusSoutheast Asia
Canopius is still relatively underweight in many of the markets of Southeast Asia. However, the downward pressure on rates – and potential for fairly large nat cat losses in the future – means that growing the business in this region can be challenging.
Nonetheless, certain areas that have faced a high level of claims this year are looking attractive. Thailand, where insurers suffered more than US$1bn in insured losses following a devastating earthquake, is one such market.
“Over the past few years Thailand has been quite competitive. This has made growth in the market challenging,” says Lee. “Now, on the back of this earthquake, there’s a lot of discussion taking place about the overall market losses that have been creeping in. There needs to be some adjustment on the terms and conditions, and this creates an opportunity for reinsurers like us.”
Canopius doesn’t have a significant presence in Thailand at the moment, but Lee says she would like to expand there.
She says that two other countries looking interesting in the region at the moment are Vietnam and Malaysia, where the (re)insurer has a licence in Labuan.
Typhoon Kalmaegi has just swept across both the Philippines and Vietnam, causing hundreds of deaths and potentially resulting in several hundred million dollars in economic losses, according to Aon.
“We’re likely to see a lot more activity in Southeast Asia market for sure, especially where there have been losses over the past few months,” says Lee.
Soon Keen Lee
APAC Chief Executive Officer at CanopiusAustralia’s mid-market
Earlier this year, Canopius also appointed Andrew Ziolkowski to be head of Australia and New Zealand.
This hire is part of the (re)insurers ambitions to grow its business to 50% of the overall APAC franchise. Last year, Australia accounted for 30-35% of the APAC book. This is now slightly more than over 40%.
“Canopius has established a really credible and confident position in Australia over the last five years, which is very impressive given how competitive the market is. But we also recognise that there is quite a bit of white space where new growth can come from,” says Ziolkowski.
Andrew Ziolkowski
Head of Australia and New Zealand at CanopiusA key area of interest for Canopius in Australia is the mid-market segment. This would be chiefly writing risk for property, casualty and financial lines.
“These are businesses where we have expertise in Australia, and can also leverage off our global expertise to offer a compelling proposition to clients,” says Ziolkowski. “The mid-market segment is a large part of the Australian insurance market, but we still only have a relatively small slice of the pie.”
Canopius’ approach to growth in the Australian market is to be very selective about where it participates.
“We don’t want to be all things to all people,” says Ziolkowski. “We want to choose those segments where we feel we can offer the greatest value and expertise.”
