Lloyd’s Advent syndicate 780, which is backed by Advent Capital Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of Fairfax Financial Holdings, has pulled out of hull and cargo lines reports re-Insurance.com. The Syndicate will continue to write some marine business, including liability and specie.
Syndicate 780 generated GWP of $271.2m last year, of which $24.5m was in marine, aviation & transport (MAT). MAT booked a loss of $15.0m out of a syndicate net technical result of minus $46.0m (2016: minus $0.7m) and a combined ratio of 126%.
Renewed marine premium at the start of the year was reported as 5% higher than in 2017.
The three major Atlantic hurricanes and the California wildfires added 18.3pp to the combined ratio in 2017.
Advent’s marine business is headed up by James Bavin. William Beveridge is chief underwriting officer for the syndicate and also its CEO.
“Following a number of years of inadequate pricing in the London transactional hull and cargo classes of business, we have concluded that there is limited prospect of a return to profitability at a market level and have therefore taken the decision to cease writing open market business in these classes with immediate effect,” Advent was reported to have said.
Lloyd’s has issued two warnings this year to marine underwriters, telling them that the sector must improve or some of the poorer performers risked being barred from operating in the sector.