Search archive

Advanced search

French reinsurer Scor is expecting to write EUR10bn in gross written premium by 2013, in part driven by increased opportunities for cross-selling between its property casualty and life portfolios, the company said at this year's Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous.

Last month Scor closed its $912.5mn acquisition of the mortality portfolio of Aegon's life reinsurance subsidiary Transamerica Re after receiving regulatory approval for the deal.

The transaction saw Scor take on EUR1.2bn ($1.8bn) of Aegon assets - largely in cash and corporate bonds - and the corresponding liabilities. The Transamerica business generated gross premiums of $2.2bn in 2010, which will lift Scor Global Life's premiums by 50 percent.

Scor chairman Denis Kessler added that the company has been significantly protected as result of its retrocessional programme from the full extent of first losses, claiming that the net burden of natural catastrophe losses in 2011 to date has been less important for Scor than its peers.

In 2011 he said Scor had combined the use of traditional retrocession with the adoption of contingent capital and insurance linked securities to limit the impact of large loss events.

The company said that as of the half-year mark, 85 percent of overall retrocession cover for the year had remained untouched, with 42 percent of catastrophe retrocession cover already secured though multi-year covers.

Scor also said that its global property casualty business has the potential for further growth, highlighting markets such as Germany, Latin America and Australia as potential opportunities.

In speciality lines it added that it also sees itself as underweight compared to its peers in areas such as US catastrophe business and marine & energy, "either for risk appetite or expected profitability".

Despite H1 losses, however, the reinsurer was relatively sanguine with respect to prospects for rating, suggesting that the pricing environment for property casualty business is only "gradually improving".