The Swedish Club Returns Strong Performance
“Last year was a good year for the club with results showing a positive return on investment and a very good contribution from the underwriting side,” said Lars Rhodin, The Swedish Club’s Managing Director, during his address to the Club’s 142nd AGM in Gothenburg on June 12.
He added: “We had a strong operating performance, returning a surplus of $17m, and we saw further diversification within marine and energy with planned growth in all sectors.”
During the year, the Club reinforced its office in Norway, decided to offer its Maritime Resource Management (MRM) program free of charge to members and saw its free reserves rise to a historically high level of $168m.
Lars Rhodin told members attending the AGM that the results were the combination of four factors: “First of all we had a benign claims year; then we saw the effects of diversification over many products in different business areas and we also had a strong marine operating performance with a very good combined ratio. The way we transfer risk today means the Club takes more risk, enabling us to conserve the upside.”
The Swedish Club’s Managing Director also underlined the importance of the Club’s future growth strategy. He said: “Growth is important and our goal is to grow a bit more than the market. In P&I we have grown by 50% over the past four years, against a growth in the world fleet of 30%. In H&M we have increased the number of units we insure from 1,500 to 2,000. Part of this is regular growth and part is the addition of more offshore service vessels which we have entered in through our regional offices.”
Lars Rhodin also pointed to the strong contribution that came from the underwriting side. He added: “We saw a total net combined ratio of 93% which was made up from a net combined ratio in Marine of 67%; a net combined ratio in Energy of 84%; net combined ratio in P&I of 112% — which is acceptable under the circumstances — and a net combined ratio in FD&D of 81%.
“In terms of our underwriting result, we saw a contribution of $15.8m from Marine and $1.2m from Energy but we had a $5.2m deficit from the P&I side with a surplus of $1.3m from FD&D,” he said.
While claims frequency may have been up a little, the size of the average claim fell in P&I. There was a rise in cargo and injury claims last year, members were told.
