UnipolRe puts relationships first

UnipolRe, the reinsurer formed in Dublin a year ago by Italian insurer UnipolSai Assicurazioni, the insurance arm of the Italian Unipol Group, is targeting the Turkish market as its first step into the markets of central and eastern Europe, Marco Sordoni, the chief executive of UnipolRe, told Baden-Baden Today.

He said the reinsurer, which will receive an additional €300 million ($327 million) from its parent over a three-year period, is also carefully considering the opportunities in other markets, Sordoni said.

“As a first step UnipolRe is entering into the Turkish market and we are currently carefully studying the central and eastern European markets,” he said. “As a startup company UnipolRe appreciates the need to undertake time and investment of energy to acquire market knowledge and to develop models that will enable UnipolRe to provide a global service offering to our clients.”

Sordoni said UnipolRe’s focus is on establishing stable and perennial relationships with cedants but he also said the firm is realistic about its ability to lead programmes at this stage.

“There is no pretence of providing leadership on our part but we are keen to offer the service of a benchmark quoting reinsurer as well as specialised knowhow in structuring reinsurance programmes.

“Being part of Unipol Group, one of the biggest buyers of reinsurance in Europe, we see it as a competitive advantage that we can share some of this expertise with our clients,” he said.

He stressed that the reinsurer is not driven by a desire to grow, only to form good relationships with clients at this early stage of its development. And he said the company’s ownership stands it in good stead in this sense.

“UnipolRe has a special empathy towards the buyer, given our parent’s experience in generating capital efficiency through effective reinsurance as one of Europe’s largest buyers,” he said.

“We leverage the insurance knowhow especially in respect of long-tail business. UnipolRe has a more reasonable low ROE target thanks to its shareholder. Of major importance to us is to enter perennial business relationships with our clients, some of whom will benefit from our unique and very specialised telematics offering.”

He said that the capital injection the company has received will not be used to target growth, instead it is simply to “generate a solvency:capital ratio that is reliable for all of our clients”.