Nexus on hunt for acquisitions

Nexus Underwriting Management (Nexus) is looking to acquire specialty niche MGA's in order to boost underwriting profit, according to executive chairman Colin Thompson.

“We are currently looking at potential acquisitions in Denmark, ‎Australia, Switzerland and of course the UK. Our main issue is management bandwidth and ensuring we devote our time on the best opportunities,” Thompson told Intelligent Insurer, adding that it was very interested in trade credit and transaction liability in Asia.

Nexus acquired 100 percent of the shareholding in the Hong Kong domiciled Marine Managing General Agent, Beacon Underwriters (Beacon).

“Next steps regarding Asia are to integrate Beacon into our existing operation and to continue augmenting our relatively new operation with the addition of new product lines,” Thompson said.

In November 2015 Nexus launched Nexus Underwriting Asia in Hong Kong. In May 2016, Nexus signed a three-year underwriting capacity deal with XL Catlin in Asia through XL Insurance Company, enabling Nexus to offer up to $15 million of financial lines capacity to commercial businesses and financial institutions across a broad range of products, including directors and officers (D&O), professional indemnity and crime.

Beacon is Nexus’ third acquisition within 12 months. In December 2015 Nexus bought Millstream Underwriting Limited, a City of London-based independent managing general agency specialising in travel personal accident and sickness insurance covers.

In August 2015 Nexus purchased MGA and Lloyd’s service provider EBA Insurance Services, allowing it to extend its product range in surety, bond and fine art among others.

The integration of EBA and Millstream is going well, Thompson said, adding that both businesses have delivered record earnings before interest tax and depreciation.

Although he described the result of the EU referendum a “huge shock and in many respects it feels that we have propelled ourselves back to 2008,” Thompson said that for Nexus it is “business as usual and we remain totally committed to our European clients, brokers and employees."

“As an aside to Brexit, the main challenge is the softening market place and the pressure on rates. That's why underwriting profit is so important to us and why we target MGA's with proven track records of underwriting performance,” he added.