IGI gross written premiums up 16 percent

International specialist commercial insurer and reinsurer International General Insurance Holdings Company (IGI) has seen a 16 percent increase in gross premiums written for the three months ended September 30, 2019, compared to the same period last year.

Gross written premiums were $74 million, as compared to $64 million for 2018. Premium rates on renewal business increased by 10.6 percent.

IGI said it remains strongly capitalized to take advantage of current market conditions through the January renewal season

“The global insurance market is in a better position than we have seen for a long time,” said Wasef Jabsheh, founder, vice chairman and CEO of IGI. “The broader insurance landscape has seen better market conditions and significantly improved rates across various lines of business. We have laid the foundation for long-term sustainable and profitable growth and now there is a good opportunity to deploy additional capital profitably.”

IGI said rates across its various specialty classes of business are moving in the right direction, while market discipline continues to improve. Premium rates on renewal business are up approximately 10.6 percent across the IGI portfolio, with the most significant increases in the London marketplace in specialty and casualty lines including directors & officers, professional indemnity, financial institutions and aviation.

“As rate momentum across our portfolio continues to build, we look forward to completing our NASDAQ public market listing in the first quarter of 2020 with Tiberius,” said IGI. “This will add approximately $120 million of equity to IGI’s balance sheet, which will allow the deployment of more capital to take advantage of these attractive worldwide market conditions.

“IGI’s primary focus has always been disciplined underwriting and careful business selection with an emphasis on in-depth risk assessment of the underlying exposure. Given current market conditions, this will continue to enable IGI to achieve lower-volatility total value creation (tangible book value growth per share plus dividends) via reinsurance purchases that are designed to enhance risk-adjusted returns while using treaty reinsurance to protect capital.”

IGI said its investment portfolio has not been repositioned from the half year and retains its significant cash position as the yield environment worsened in the quarter.

“We will continue to opportunistically move cash into highly-rated short-term fixed income securities to generate additional revenue without a meaningful change in our conservative financial positioning,” said IGI.