Randall: Results Are In Line With Expectations
United Kingdom specialist non-life insurance investor Randall & Quilter Investment Holdings PLC — which announced in April that it was redomiciling to Bermuda for regulatory, operational and commercial reasons — said the company’s business is performing well and the first half-year result will likely in line with management expectation.
The firm held its annual general meeting in London today when chairman and chief executive Ken Randall said a strong performance from the group’s run-off syndicate participations will deliver a good first half performance in its insurance investments division.
This has been supported “higher than anticipated investment income following credit spread tightening during the first quarter with limited impact to date from recent market volatility, and reserve releases from certain of the non-US owned legacy insurance companies.”
He added that results for active syndicate participations will reflect “slow earned premium development in the newly launched Syndicate 1991, which was largely anticipated by management and is typical of a syndicate in its early stages of growth”. He noted that 1991 is expected to “reach, or be close to, its ultimate premium target for the 2013 underwriting year”.
Mr. Randall added that the insurance services division is benefiting from strong levels of credit write-backs but noting “a certain amount of new business income deferral in the US operations”.
While the underwriting management division performance is improving, that is expected “to be reflected more significantly in the second half of the year when higher commissions from the MGAs and a larger contribution from fee income are expected”.
Notable developments in the first part of the year have included acquisitions in the IID, having completed the acquisition of the Hickson captive in run-off in the IOM, the novation of the liability policies from Virgin’s Guernsey captive and the acquisition of La Reassurance Intercontinentale in France including a new reinsurance arrangement. It has also “purchased a number of new insurance debt positions” and recently agreed a portfolio transfer from Turva to its Finnish run-off insurer Alma.
Mr. Randall said: “Our acquisition pipeline continues to be strong and we are pursuing a number of attractive opportunities, certain of which are of a larger scale than those recently announced.
“Having raised circa £24 million in the placing completed last month and with the benefit of our impending improved regulatory and operational platforms in Bermuda and Malta, we consider that we are well positioned to exploit fully the growth opportunities open to us ahead.”
