Run-off specialist Randall & Quilter sees continued opportunities in its (re)insurance debt acquisition business, but has noted a slowdown in its Lloyd’s turnkey activity.
R&Q chief executive Ken Randall will tell shareholders at his company’s annual general meeting this morning that R&Q as a whole has continued to perform satisfactorily since the full-year 2010 results were announced on 28 April.
According to Randall, R&Q has made a further “sizeable” debt acquisition since the announcement of the 2010 results, and is looking for capital backing to do more.
“We are hoping to finalise a capital partnership agreement over the summer period which would enable us to take full advantage of the larger sized acquisition opportunities we are seeing in this area,” Randall will tell shareholders. “This partnership model will ensure that our own portfolio is kept well diversified and that we enhance our return on invested capital.”
He will add that he company is seeing a number of interesting investment opportunities in the Lloyd’s reinsurance to close, captives and insurance company markets.
“Although demand and competition for such investments remains strong, the number of opportunities does appear to have increased,” Randall will say. “Once again, we are progressing discussions with capital partners to ensure we are able to acquire larger portfolios as the opportunities arise."
However, the company’s underwriting management division, under which it manages start-up Lloyd’s syndicates on behalf of their backers, known as turnkey management, has grown more slowly than expected.
“Written premiums have fallen behind budget due to a combination of early delays in certain of our businesses becoming fully operational and a hitherto poor rating environment,” Randall will say.
However, he added that the division was ahead of plan in terms of hiring teams and is making good progress on building the division for future profitability.
“In our 2010 full year results statement, we warned about the impact of Solvency II on our ability to start new turnkey syndicates for launch in January 2012 and this remains the case,” Randall will say. “Nevertheless, Lloyd's remains an underwriting platform and we are pursuing a number of prospects for launch later next year.”
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