IGI seeing “abundance” of E&S submissions, reveals limited Beirut port exposure

International General Insurance Holdings (IGI) has seen “an abundance of submissions and inquiries” in its newly launched excess and surplus (E&S) lines business since opening at 1 April, with the platform having written some $12.5mn of premium to date.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners gave IGI provisional approval to write US E&S business back in March. IGI Bermuda then began writing E&S business on 1 April, a moment which marked the company’s first real foray into the US market.

Talking to The Insurer following publication of the company’s results on Thursday, president Waleed Jabsheh said the new E&S offering has been well received by the market so far.

“We’ve written in the US so far around $12.5mn of premium to date…It’s been a decent start for us in the US and we’re looking to grow and develop further in the coming quarters,” he said.

IGI is focused solely on short tail E&S business. To begin with, it is writing property and energy business, including upstream, downstream, power and utilities. It is also writing political risk and terrorism.

Jabsheh said IGI is keen to build upon its early success in the E&S space.

“We’re obviously keen to write more and we’ll be growing the portfolio in the coming quarters and years. We believe our timing was good. It’s something we’ve considered for a long time, but never felt it was the opportune time to pull the trigger on that,” he said.

“The coming quarters will present us with a lot more opportunities than we’ve seen over the last few months as well,” Jabsheh added.

The executive explained how IGI’s entry into the rapidly growing E&S sector has already seen it receive plenty of potential business.

“We’ve seen an abundance of submissions and inquiries since we started, the vast majority of which we haven’t been able to get involved with. We are doing it like we’ve approached any other new class of business or territory – it’s gradual, methodical and disciplined growth,” said Jabsheh.

“We want to grow and will take advantage of all attractive opportunities that present themselves. The US is the biggest market in the world so over time we do expect this portfolio to be of a reasonable size,” he said.

Port of Beirut explosion

IGI is historically tied to the Middle East, with the company’s operational headquarters in Amman, Jordan. Jabsheh confirmed that IGI has some “incidental exposure” to the explosion in the Port of Beirut on 4 August through various Middle Eastern treaties it writes.

However, Jabsheh said IGI has “no direct exposure within a 2km radius of the explosion site”, and explained that the (re)insurer has only limited exposure in Lebanon.

“It’s never been a big market for us,” he said.

Jabsheh said IGI does not have any Lebanese treaty business within its portfolios.

The executive also said it was too early to put a number on IGI’s overall exposure to the event, as well as what the broader market’s loss may be.

“To be able to quantify or put a number on our expected losses – it’s way too early,” he said. “Things are unfolding and developing and so it’s still early doors. [But] it will be an event that hits the Middle Eastern markets quite significantly given the magnitude.”