Ageas Re expands into credit and surety reinsurance

“We started in September 2022 with the ambition to become a full-service reinsurance provider, and in 2025, we’ll be taking another significant step forward.”

With these words, Joachim Racz, chief executive officer of Ageas Re, announced the company’s expansion into credit and surety reinsurance, marking a pivotal moment in its strategic growth.

Racz believes that Ageas Re, a reinsurance startup born from Ageas Group Reinsurance, which organises the reinsurance activities of the wider Ageas Group, is evolving naturally in the right direction given the company’s initial focus on property-cat reinsurance and its subsequent success branching out to casualty lines during the 2024 renewals.

“We’re looking forward to engaging with brokers and clients.”

Highlighting the strategic importance of this new venture, Racz stated: “We have a strong value proposition to our insurance partners: we have an A+ stable rating, and a large balance sheet so we’re looking forward to engaging with brokers and clients to discuss how we can be helpful in that part of our industry.

“For the renewal 2025, we will be offering credit and surety reinsurance to our clients. We’re very excited about this.”

This expansion reflects Ageas Re’s commitment to diversifying its business while leveraging its robust financial foundation.

“In terms of risk appetite, we’re now looking at programmes that contain heavier risks than just personal lines and SME, such as the more corporate programmes.

“I believe we’re still the only reinsurance startup since 2022 so I’m quite happy with the progress we are making.”

As Ageas gears up for expansion, the company is addressing the challenges of the upcoming 2025 renewal season. 

“My concern is finding a win-win situation between the buyers and the sellers, allowing us to keep deploying the capital that the market needs.

“Otherwise, if there’s too much pressure on programmes and signing, growth plans for us will be put on hold,” Racz explained.

Despite these challenges, Racz remains optimistic about the market’s stability, noting: “We are still in a generational, hard market; we won’t go into any kind of dramatic soft cycle any time soon.” 

He pointed out regional differences in market conditions, emphasising the potential for extreme hardening in markets such as Italy and the Scandinavian countries.

This careful balance between growth and market discipline is central to Ageas Re’s strategy as it navigates the complexities of the reinsurance landscape.

Looking ahead, Racz is confident in Ageas’ Res ability to capitalise on growth opportunities across its main lines of business. 

“We see opportunities to grow in all of our existing main lines.

“With staffing and skills following our early successes, there’s room for us to grow in property-cat.”

A perfect match

Racz discussed plans to increase capacity in key areas: “We increased our zonal capacity from €80 to €100 million, meaning that our maximum line on a cat programme increases from €20 to €25 million.

“On the property risk side, our risk appetite is doubling to €10 million for any one risk.”

This expansion into credit and surety reinsurance is part of a broader strategy to grow the business while maintaining a disciplined approach. 

“We did our homework, and we’re very hopeful that credit and surety can be a perfect match between the value proposition of Ageas and the client,” Racz added.

As Ageas continues its rapid growth and strategic expansion, Racz remains focused on the long-term vision: “When we announced entering third-party reinsurance back in September 2022, we were five people—today, we’re 45.

“There’s growth on the skills side, and on the process side, and with the maturity of our systems and pricing tools,” Racz continued. 

“We do that all at our own pace—not very fast, but once we’re there, we’re there to stay.”

For more news from the Rendez-Vous de Septembre (RVS) click here.

Did you get value from this story?  Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox.