Ageas Re names PartnerRe’s Lilburn to co-lead credit and bond offering

By Ryan Hewlett

March 11 - (The Insurer) - Ageas Re, the reinsurance arm of Belgian insurance group Ageas, has hired long-serving PartnerRe underwriter Jeremy Lilburn as co-head of its newly launched credit and bond offering.

Lilburn joins the carrier after more than 25 years at Bermudian reinsurer PartnerRe, where he latterly served as head of financial risk for Europe.

Prior to this, he held a number of senior roles including global specialty head for credit & surety, global specialty head of agriculture, and executive client partner for Northern Europe.

Lilburn joined PartnerRe in 1999 following almost a decade at Winterthur Insurance.

The Insurer reported last October that Ageas Re had hired former Coface Re executive Sylvie Hirn to lead the credit and bond offering, citing sources close to the company. In September last year this publication reported that the carrier was targeting a financial lines reinsurance build-out after its successful entry into casualty earlier in the year. Ageas Re formally began writing third-party property cat reinsurance at 1 January 2023.

Speaking to The Insurer on the sidelines of last September's Rendez-Vous in Monte Carlo, Joachim Racz, group director of Ageas Re, said the launch of a credit and bond offering would add financial lines reinsurance as a third pillar to its existing specialty book alongside property and casualty.

He said entering credit and surety was a “natural progression” for the reinsurer, which has a chosen strategy of increasing its market share through a gradual expansion by both line of business and geography.

Parent company Ageas last month reported that net operating profit at its reinsurance unit jumped by 62% in 2024, which helped drive a group-level earnings and profit beat.