It has now been over four months since the launch of Syndicate 2454 back in April, the first African focused syndicate writing business at Lloyd’s.
Syndicate 2454 was set up to increase high quality capacity for the African market, with the initial aim to write gross premium of approximately £70 million for 2024.
The response has been remarkable, both in London and across Africa, with our local markets particularly enthusiastic. By partnering with other (re)insurers and syndicates at Lloyd’s, we aim to increase the amount of business from Africa at Lloyd’s beyond its current 2% and become a key facilitator in that growth.
The Lloyd’s brand in Africa is incredibly strong and has a huge amount of credibility sitting behind it. With our extensive network and experience in Africa, we bring locally sourced, high quality African business to the London market. Combined with Lloyd’s global brand and licences, we aim to help close the corporate and specialty capacity gap for clients across Africa.
Already in just the first four months, we are seeing the opportunity that exists for Africa in the Lloyd’s markets. The day-to-day interactions we are having with brokers has enabled us to source more opportunities both in and out of Africa. It has also enabled us to increase the size of lines we are able to write.
Often the local markets are not big enough to retain the risk on the continent, so using our Lloyd’s syndicate alongside our third-party binder capacity partners enables us to write these risks.
The syndicate and our own box at Lloyd’s have been a hit not only with our underwriting teams and brokers, but also with some well-known personalities. In the first three months, we have been visited by former England cricket captain Nasser Hussain and actor and African investor advocate Idris Elba!
Looking to the future, we are excited about what Syndicate 2454 means for ASR and the African insurance market more widely. We aim to keep growing our Lloyd’s portfolio and to deploy Lloyd’s capacity in tandem with our other capacity and binder partnerships.
We will continue working with both established and new brokers and teams in the market, as well as work on various new innovative products within ASR, to fulfil our goal of closing the insurance capacity gap in emerging markets.