Broker Tysers said that Shipowners Club could be considered “the most boring Club to review, although this is for all the right reasons”.
Tysers said that “yet again the Club has delivered a set of results that are the envy of the International Group and show it need have no fear of competition within the Group or from inferior commercial offerings”.
A 99% membership retention saw gross tonnage rise by 3% to 28.7m gt, with the yacht sector showing the most growth. Gross premium rose by $17m to $249m, while claims were up by just $4m at $161m.
Covid-related claims were up 20% on 2020, but the biggest impact on claims were extreme weather events, including cyclones in India and typhoons in the Philippines.
The largest claim involved the sinking of an accommodation barge offshore of Mumbai, with the loss of 75 lives. That loss was notified to the Pool.
The net combined ratio improved to 98.7% from the previous year’s 101%, producing an underwriting surplus of $2.9m. There was an investment return of $14.5m (3.5%), (helped by the fact that its calendar year accounting period meant that it avoided the market drop during the first seven weeks of 2022), resulted in an increase in free reserves of $17.4m to just over $396m.
Free reserves have grown by $93m since 2019.
Tysers said that Shipowners’ Club “sticks to its core business and does this very well, and an average combined ratio of 98% over the last ten years is a solid performance any Club would be proud of”.
The Club is also rolling out Medisea, an enhanced product for seafarers covering psychological, physical and mental wellbeing assessments to supplement the bare minimum medical examinations. Tysers said that this should reduce the incidence of health-related incidents on members’ vessels.
Managers
The Shipowners’ Protection Ltd
Gross Tonnage
| Owned | 28,721,000 |
| Chartered | N/A |
Standard & Poor’s Rating A
Free reserves
| 2022 | 396,436,000 |
| 2021 | 379,065,000 |
| 2020 | 339,974,000 |
| 2019 | 303,825,000 |
| 2018 | 341,726,000 |
| Year | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 |
| Calls/Premium | 249,005 | 232,081 | 224,902 | 224,267 | 216,341 |
| Reinsurance Cost | 25,835 | 24,864 | 24,943 | 29,270 | 29,706 |
| Net Claims (incurred) | 161,160 | 157,091 | 156,491 | 151,038 | 136,165 |
| Operating Expenses | 59,086 | 59,159 | 53,741 | 52,156 | 48,709 |
| Net Underwriting Result | 2,924 | (9,033) | (10,273) | (8,197) | 1,761 |
| Gross Outstanding Claims | 506,926 | 516,216 | 464,442 | 440,348 | 425,420 |
| Total Assets | 1,017,123 | 1,002,390 | 905,789 | 843,216 | 859,393 |
| Average Expense Ratio | 23% | 22% | 23% | 24% | 22% |
| Solvency Margin | 2.01 | 1.94 | 1.95 | 1.91 | 2.02 |
| Reserves/GT Ratio | $13.80 | $13.62 | $12.56 | $11.15 | $13.41 |
All figures $’000
Vessel type is widely divided among smaller-type vessels.
Tonnage by geography
| Europe | 19% |
| Americas | 14% |
| SE Asia/Far East | 51% |
| ANZ & Pacific | 4% |
| Africa/ROW | 2% |
| Middle East & India | 10% |