US insurer AmTrust is closing its Lloyd’s marine business. “We can confirm after a strategic review that we are exiting the marine cargo, hull and liability lines of business with immediate effect. We are excited about the potential for existing and new lines for the rest of 2018 and beyond,” an AmTrust spokesperson told re-insurance.com.
AmTrust’s marine team is headed by Peter Townsend, who joined AmTrust from Swiss Re late in 2015. Syndicate 1861 began writing marine business the following year, making the decision to pull out now something of a surprise. Syndicate 1861 wrote £49.3m of marine, aviation and transport business last year, up from £32.6m in 2016.
The syndicate booked a total loss of £29.2m last year, and its combined ratio rose to 116.7%.
Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, wildfires in California and a Mexican earthquake badly impacted the Lloyd’s market last year, and the Cargo, Marine Excess of Loss and Proportional Treaty classes at syndicate 1861 were significantly impacted by the hurricanes and the Mexico earthquakes, with gross losses of £11.7m in the period.
AmTrust said that in 2017 the marine liability book performed well.
For 2017 the Syndicate also participated on a Marine Hull consortium on which Syndicate 1206, another Syndicate managed by ASL whose capital is provided by AmTrust Corporate Member Limited, is the consortium leader and ASL is the consortium manager. During the period, £13.3m (2016: £nil) was written by the Syndicate as a participant on this consortium.
Syndicate capacity for AmTrust syndicate 1861 the 2017 year of account was £245.0m. The capacity was increased to £540.0m for the 2018 year of account following the Managing Agent’s decision to consolidate all its non-life underwriting activities, formerly underwritten through Syndicates 1861, 5820 and 1206, into Syndicate 1861 for the 2018 year of account onwards.