Korean Re joins Lloyd's
Source: Asia Insurance Review | May 2015
Korean Re announced in April that it had concluded the process of entering the Lloyd’s market, in a move that reflects the company’s commitment to increase its overseas business.
The world’s ninth largest reinsurer by gross written premiums said this move will provide it with “the opportunity to experience advanced reinsurance practices and techniques”, which in turn will help to drive the growth of its business in Europe.
The Korean reinsurer will operate in Lloyd’s under the auspices of Korean Re Underwriting Ltd., a new company set up in London for that purpose. The company is a special purpose syndicate with a capacity of GBP10 million (US$15 million), and is the result of a strategic partnership with Beazley, the parent company of specialist insurance businesses with operations in Europe, the US, Asia, the Middle East and Australia.
Korean Re and Beazley partnership
Under the partnership, Korean Re and Beazley agree to share their underwriting experiences in the markets that they have traditionally been serving, the press release said.
Korean Re CEO Jong-Gyu Won said: “I expect our partnership will create huge synergy effects for mutual growth of our two companies based on Beazley’s extensive experiences in various markets of the world and Korean Re’s long-standing presence and expertise in Asia.”
Building on the access to Lloyd’s market, Korean Re will press ahead with the plan to increase its global business. The company had unveiled in 2014 a corporate roadmap dubbed “Vision 2050”, in which it laid out its ambition to become of the top three insurers in the world, a feat that it intends to achieve by increasing the share of its overseas business to 80% by 2050.