Qatar Re (formerly Q-Re), which is slated to become a global multi-line reinsurer, is expecting gross premiums to grow more than 60% to $550mn this year.
The company, which has reported a net profit of $16mn in the first six months of this year, is expanding into liability and facultative property lines of business and growing its presence in the Americas and Asia. In the first half of 2014, Qatar Re wrote gross premiums of $327mn, an increase of 55% from that in 2013.
At present, agriculture, credit and surety as well as energy, marine, aviation and engineering business account for about a third of the portfolio. Property (17%), motor liability (30%) and Lloyd's third party capacity (20%) complete the company's well-diversified book of business.
Of the investable funds, cash and cash equivalents amounted to $323mn, or 2% of investable assets, which delivered an average annual yield of 1.4%. Other invested funds, which include fixed income instruments, yielded a gross return of 4%.
Total net investment income for the first six months 2014 increased 26% year-on-year to $11.7mn. This included $3.2mn of realised gains from sales of investments during the six-month period, a year-on-year increase of 5%.
Geographically, Qatar Re has built a far more balanced portfolio. As of June 30, 2014, European business accounted for more than 50% of the portfolio, followed by the Americas (25%), Asia (17%), Africa (3%) and Oceania (3%).
Within less than two years, Qatar Re has been rebuilt from a regional reinsurer into a global multi-line franchise, its CEO Gunther Saacke said.
"Despite a soft market cycle, we have successfully established a well-diversified and profitable multi-line portfolio. Based on our cedants' trust in our capital strength and underwriting skills, we are on course to write full-year gross premiums in excess of half a billion dollar," he added.
The upcoming 2015 January renewals will continue to be characterised by excess reinsurance capacity. As a result, Qatar Re expects that the average number of reinsurers on cedants' panels will decline, it said.
Established in 2009, Qatar Re, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Qatar Insurance Company, started as a regional player, writing business in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. By 2012, the company had built a book of gross written premiums of $103mn, with 25 employees operating from Doha and now it has more than 100 employees across its Doha, Zurich, Bermuda and London offices.
© Gulf Times 2014
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