SiriusPoint’s Heerasing on growth strategy and the importance of Asia

When SiriusPoint completed the merger of two Bermudian juggernauts earlier this year the industry was preparing for what would be one of the worst years of catastrophes on record.

And coming amid the chaos wrought by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the market has taken some hefty blows, with large losses across a range of segments prompting calls for significant rate increases at 1.1 to move forward on a more realistic financial footing.

Bobby Heerasing, head of international strategic business development at SiriusPoint, has plenty of experience dealing with crises across his 25+ years in the industry, and he joined the company after a period away from the market.

He spoke to the 1.1 Club, Intelligent Insurer’s online, on-demand platform for interviews and panel discussions with industry leaders, to discuss where the company is heading and his thoughts on how to bounce back from the pandemic.

Heerasing has come into the company with a mandate to grow the portfolio beyond its traditional strengths in property cat business, saying there is a recognition within the merged organisation to widen its horizons.

There is also a commitment to invest in the firm’s digital capabilities, which the executive says will help it expand more efficiently.

“The intention is to diversify, to grow. As part of that growth plan, we’ll be investing in capabilities from a product perspective, investing in technology, which will enable us to transact and distribute these products in a more efficient manner to some of our clients, and our ability to plug products into countries and segments,” Heerasing said.

“We’ve also been investing in businesses and capabilities. When I think of the managing general agent (MGA) segment, we’ve partnered with some very exciting businesses over the last few months. We have plans to continue investing in some of those businesses that will give us the depth and capability of products.

“When I think of growth, it’s particularly from those areas, and we can talk products, we can talk segments, we can talk geographies. We have a very exciting next few years ahead of us as we contemplate broadening the offer and making SiriusPoint a cross-class multinational reinsurer.”

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Working with partners

With the focus on partnering with MGAs and other innovative companies, Heerasing says the company won’t stray too far from its roots as an out and out reinsurer.

That means the firm is set to use its capital to work with startups and other potential partners and peers in the industry rather than investing in the establishment of more individual insurance companies across various markets.

“At our core we are still a reinsurer. The intention is not to park capital or to start insurance companies in a multitude of locations. We do have a great set of licences and paper in some key locations, particularly in North America and Europe, and we are in the process of obtaining paper for markets such as Australia,” he explained.

“We will offer solutions which are a bit different from those of some of our peers to potential partners or entrepreneurs who are looking to start up insurance businesses and in some key areas.

“We will continue to support entrepreneurs who are looking at some MGA solutions, and by MGA particularly where there’s a novel element of distribution, delivering technology, leveraging data or AI as part of their business, which we believe will give them a long standing USP to their business and therefore give edge which they can manage through cycles.”

SiriusPoint has a significant presence across the Asia-Pacific reinsurance markets, and countries in the region are likely to play an important role in the company’s growth in years to come, Heerasing says.

With economies still posting among the highest growth rates of anywhere in the world rallying from the worst damage of the pandemic and a persistent insurance gap, the executive believes that Asia will be a major source of growth moving forward.

“We will continue to see underlying growth in the Asian markets. Obviously economic activities are down and down quite significantly in some key economies, but I’d like to think we’ll see a bounce back, particularly as we start to emerge out of COVID.

“Over the last few weeks we have witnessed the emergence of the Omicron variant, which has added a slight curveball as we start to emerge from two years of COVID-induced issues. But I do believe that we’ll start to see those economies recover, probably recovering more quickly and in a more resilient way than potentially some of the European or North American economies.

“We’ve already seen India post double-digit, quarterly growth; China has jumped up and slowed down a bit, but I believe we’ll see Asia bounce back in a meaningful way, which therefore means there will be continued need or increased need for capital and solutions, and there continues to be a protection gap in the region.”

“So therefore, from a reinsurance perspective, there’ll be an increased demand for capital, increased demand for solutions, and particularly in terms of what we as reinsurance bring to the region.”

Full 1.1 Club interview here