Lancashire seeking new teams to expand E&S unit

By Scott Vincent

March 6 - (The Insurer) - Lancashire is targeting further expansion in its US excess and surplus lines unit in 2025 and is currently seeking new teams to join the business, CEO Alex Maloney told The Insurer.

Speaking on Thursday after the company announced a $321.3 million after-tax profit for the full year, Maloney highlighted last April’s launch of Lancashire Insurance US, the group’s E&S segment, as one of its key achievements in 2024.

“We were very pleased with how quickly we could establish the business. There are lots of conversations taking place around adding new teams, but it is important to make sure we invest in the right opportunities,” he said.

Maloney highlighted the opportunity provided by the enormity of the E&S property market, with the group also seeing energy casualty opportunities from clients that do not need Lloyd’s or London market “big ticket” capacity.

Property, led by Chris Curtin, and energy casualty, led by Brian Quinn, were the two initial products launched through the platform last year.

During his earnings commentary, Maloney highlighted that Lancashire has doubled the number of product classes it underwrites since 2018.

“When the market turned in 2018, margins got better, and opportunities got better. And you have to grow at the right time in the cycle,” he said.

Lancashire maintained its guidance for a California wildfire loss of $145 million to $165 million in Thursday’s results announcement, to be booked in the first quarter of 2025.

“The LA wildfires are a very large loss for the industry. For Lancashire, it demonstrates we can absorb these kind of losses.”

He said the impact from the wildfires at upcoming renewals is likely to be largely concentrated around those who have suffered losses.

“Any client that is heavily loss impacted will pay more for insurance and reinsurance. When multiple clients are exhausting programs, that is unique and we will clearly see rate increases in those cases. Some clients will also buy more cover. But I don’t personally believe the impact will stretch to other lines.”