Axis realignment could crown Tizzio CEO, side-line reinsurance

A pending business realignment at  Axis Capital could elevate newcomer Vince Tizzio to the CEO suite by the end of 2023 and slash the group’s reinsurance business to a mere 25% of the whole, early commentary following Tuesday corporate disclosures suggests.

Axis Capital said Tuesday it will dump property reinsurance and regear its reinsurance operations to focus on a broad swath of specialty lines. The move will be run under revamped leadership, with newbie Vance Tizzio and three-year  Axis veteran Ann Haugh taking top roles.

Vince Tizzio (pictured), with only five months under his belt at  Axis (but 25-years at AIG, Zurich and The Hartford), made a quick move from board member and senior advisor to CEO of Specialty Insurance and Reinsurance in a reshaped group.

It’s a promotion “which we believe sets him up to be the next CEO,” Wells Fargo equity analyst Elyse Greenspan wrote in a note to clients, with mention that the current term of CEO Albert Benchimol ends late 2023.

Ann Haugh becomes CEO of  Axis Re for the firm's final shift out of property and towards specialist lines. She replaces outgoing Axis Re CEO Steve Arora, set to leave the company at end-year following nearly five years with the organization. A market-filing alluding to terms of the separation put paid to any thought the Arora departure might be a voluntary resignation.

The company will run down, not sell, its eschewed reinsurance business lines, Wells Fargo notes. That means keeping multi-year covers of around $70 million versus the $543 million of gross premiums written over the prior 12 months. Property cat reinsurance had already been cut to 20% of reinsurance GWP to end-Q1 from 25% end-2021 on Q1's 45% cut to cat and 40% cut to property.

Reinsurance could thus fall by ca 5 percentage points to 30% of group book in stage one (delayed by having written coverage in the mid-year renewals), then fall fairly quickly to the 25% mark on growth in the primary business, Greenspan feels.

Reinsurance represents around 34.6% of gross premiums written TTM 3/31/22 and after backing out of property and cat reinsurance this would go down to around 30%, although given expected growth in insurance, Axis is targeting for around 75% of its business to come from the insurance and 25% from reinsurance.

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