Beazley grows in spite of COVID

There is a lot of growth potential in Asia but in such a disparate region a one-size-fits-all approach will not do, agreed Beazley’s Rachel Turk (pictured left), group head of strategy, and Lucien Mounier (pictured right), head of Asia-Pacific.

Turk told Intelligent Insurer that there was “a buzz of energy at the conference that’s really wonderful to see”. It wasn’t just because people are together for the first time after two years. “There is clearly a lot of growth potential here,” she said.

She said that although people talk about Asia-Pacific as a region, it’s quite disparate. “There are regional or national nuances that need to be taken into consideration,” she said.

Mounier said that one of the ways Beazley works to understand these differences is to travel around, meet people and spend time with them. “We have a team that is quite representative of the region itself. We have people from 12 different nationalities, not all of them from Asia-Pacific, but quite a few, and we have people who have traded in those countries. That’s a massive enabler for us.”

In 2019, at the last in-person SIRC conference, Mounier outlined ambitious growth plans for the region. And in spite of two years of COVID-19, he said that Beazley has brought value to the region and remains committed to continued growth in Asia-Pacific.

“We set up our cyber underwriting units, an M&A underwriting unit and a surety team. More recently, we invested in life sciences and someone dedicated to that, and a few products were launched on the back of it. The most recent products we’ve invested in are for product recall,” he said.

Following a “flurry of investments” the “bench strength” of the team in the region had doubled to about 50 people. The company was able to find talent in Singapore and abroad.

While the pandemic did not entirely block growth, Mounier said that if the pandemic had continued for much longer, there would have been a major impact on business development because the team needs to go out there and talk to people on the ground in the different countries in the region.

“Two years felt extremely long, but the business managed to do quite well out of it, nonetheless. We’ve invested in these teams, they’ve all been quite successful. It’s about thinking about what’s next. We want to continue to diversify the product suite.

“There are still some areas of expertise we haven’t invested in here. We need to think about what we want to do next and in 2023, which is some of the conversations we’re having with Rachel.”