Greenlight plots growth path

Greenlight Re has placed its past legacy issues behind it and is aiming for future growth, according to Brendan Barry, chief underwriting officer at the company.

Speaking at the Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous, Barry said that it has resolved its legacy issues in the past two years.

“We’ve now had a couple of quarters of positive underwriting results and positive reserve development, so I’m glad to report that the issues of 2009–2011 are now done and behind us,” he said.

“They’ve been winding down over some time but, in conjunction with that, last year we really set out to build on the platform we already had. We are writing about $500 million in US-dominated relatively stable auto, A&H and other business of that nature.

“We will use the operational efficiency advantage we have to try and expand into higher margin business, focused on London Market specialty, marine, satellite, energy and terrorism.”

According to Barry, Greenlight Re is also building on the mortgage business it has created by adding a financial lines thread, which is going extremely well from its perspective. He said its underwriting result and combined ratio are starting to improve.

Barry said that the year has been a positive one for the company against a fairly difficult backdrop for the industry, thanks to the strategy changes it has put in place over the last 18 months or so.

He added that 2019 will be about expansion as the company reaps the rewards of relationships it has developed and adds one or two new small lines of business.

The company has also launched an innovation investment group within the company, focused mainly on insurtech.

“While every reinsurer in the world is looking at innovation as a saving grace, we don’t look at it from that that perspective. Instead, we see it integrated into our underwriting operations,” he said.

“Not only have we launched the innovation investment group but we have closed a couple of transactions and have a couple in the pipeline that are focused on some key areas for us.

“While a lot of people focus on how they can use technology to drive down costs in the business, we actually run a fairly tight and lean operational side to the business, so we’re already well prepared relative to the industry,” Barry concluded.