Asta invests in new reinsurance MGA Arma Underwriting

Asta, a third-party managing agent at Lloyd's, has announced its investment in a new London and Dubai reinsurance managing general agency (MGA) Arma Underwriting.

Asta said in a statement that it will take a minority equity stake in Arma and will support the company's infrastructure including finance and IT.

Arma intends to underwrite a broad spectrum of business lines, backed by Lloyd’s capacity. The MGA will be under the leadership of Michael Rafter as CEO and will have an office in the Dubai International Finance Centre led by Hajar Fadel as senior executive officer.

Both Rafter and Fadel join Arma from Oman Insurance Company. They will be joined on the board by former AIG president and former CEO of Oman Insurance Company Patrick Choffel, with Asta's CEO Julian Tighe and director of underwriting Simon Norton.

Tighe said: "I am proud of Asta's investment in Arma, which is going to actively contribute to the continued development of reinsurance capability in the Middle East. Asta is committed to supporting innovative MGAs like Arma as they develop new lines of business not currently seen by the market.

"To facilitate this, Asta is deploying its considerable skill base and track record of incubating Lloyd’s syndicates and MGAs to provide high quality business and regulatory support, combined with investment, to start up MGAs. The success of our efforts so far is driving a very healthy pipeline of interest from successful underwriting teams, keen to set up their own insurance enterprise."

Rafter added: "The Arma team will comprise individuals who have been at the forefront of reinsurance in the Middle East for many years. We are committed to the development of the reinsurance market in the region, and we will quickly be adding real value to our brokers and insurer clients.

"Asta's investment in us and the high quality infrastructure they have put around our business, is allowing us to focus our energies on the development of our underwriting operations and the needs of our clients."

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