London Club achieves premium income targets
THE London P&I Club achieved its premium income targets during the renewal
negotiations completed on February 20 this year. It now has a total fleet
entry of more than 30 million gross tons, covering all categories of
membership.
Major new entries in the Club included fourteen bulk carriers operated by
Petros Pappas' Sentinel Marine Services in Greece. Also, existing members -
including the Schuldt Group, V Ships, Cosco Hong Kong, and MISC - entered
additional vessels with the Club.
As in previous years, the Club declined to insure a significant amount of
tonnage which did not meet its stringent quality requirements.
The London Club has traditionally pursued a policy of selective, quality
expansion and strategic investment. For the period between February 1997 and
February 2001, it enjoyed the best average investment return of all clubs in
the International Group of P&I Clubs.
In the latest issue of its London Club News, however, the Club notes that
the well-publicised reduction in the performance of investment markets
throughout the world was a major factor in all clubs seeking significant
increases in premium income this year. And it warns that the financial
climate "remains uncertain for the foreseeable future, and that investment
returns are unlikely to reach anything like the buoyant levels that have
been achieved in recent years".
