Last year marked the 25th anniversary of AEGIS London’s launch and, as our recent full-year results release shows, another year of underwriting profitability for Lloyd’s Syndicate 1225.
The Syndicate delivered a 2023 combined ratio of 79.4%, a 4.4 percentage point improvement on the full-year result for 2022, continuing a long run of profitability, which, as our CEO Alex Powell said, reflects “our long-term strategic focus on underwriting excellence”.
Indeed, as the Insurance Insider noted when we published our prior-year results, the Syndicate has maintained a sub-100% combined ratio for 12 consecutive years up to 2022, demonstrating our commitment to disciplined underwriting.
AEGIS London also posted a UK GAAP profit of £206m in 2023, more than double the 2022 figure of £97m (up 112%), while premium volume (gross of commissions) broke the £1.0b barrier, at £1,040m, an increase of 15% on the 2022 total of £908m.
“At the heart of our sustained performance are our well-established, diversified book of business, many valued collaborative partnerships, embracing opportunities including digitalisation and using data and, of course, the talented team of people at AEGIS London,” said CEO Alex Powell about our recent results.
The Syndicate’s continued success is due in no small part to the continued support from our parent company, mutual insurer AEGIS, with AEGIS President & CEO Bill Hillman praising our Lloyd’s underwriting operation for its “ongoing contribution to the Mutual’s net income and risk diversification”.
As Alex told Insurance Business last autumn, having a financial backer who is in the insurance sector means that they understand the fundamentals of the business.
“They know that cycles happen and you can’t just grow at all costs. All the good underwriting discipline that we’ve deployed has been thoroughly supported by our very patient capital provider. There was never a grand plan, it has always been about doing what’s right and appropriate at the right time.”
Growth through disciplined underwriting, coupled with a focus on diversification and empowerment of our underwriters, has seen AEGIS London grow over two decades from an energy insurance specialist to writing a portfolio of 16 lines of business across the property, casualty, marine and specialty classes.
As Alex observed when he succeeded David Croom-Johnson as CEO upon David’s retirement, underwriting profitability has always been a guiding principle for growth at AEGIS London, through changing insurance cycles:
“It’s all about staying disciplined when the market is not with you and not trying to be too clever and buck the trends of a declining rating environment. And that’s really been led from the front, by my predecessor, and my predecessor’s predecessor.”
AEGIS London’s commitment to diversification has also continued, most recently with the expansion in November 2023 of our Digital Trading Team with the appointments of Iain Lewers as Digital Business Development Analyst and Mark Wilding as Digital Product Development Specialist, reporting to Calum Williams, who stepped into the newly created role of Digital Development Manager.
AEGIS London is also among the best performers in the London claims market, having maintained a laser focus on its claims service which led to the Syndicate having been awarded Gracechurch Consulting’s Outstanding Claims Service Quality Marque eight years in a row.
Last year also saw the business make further improvements to its claims offering, with the launch of Opal Claims, which enables brokers, coverholders and MGAs using the Opal online quote-and-bind platform to submit first notice of loss notifications directly to TPAs across all Opal product lines.
“AEGIS London will carry on going from strength to strength so long as we hold to the mantra of ‘never get complacent’. We will continue to innovate and diversify, while holding true to our focus on quality underwriting and providing excellent service to all our business partners,” Alex concludes.
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