UK P&I Club manager Thomas Miller Specialty continued its drive in the fixed premium market with the acquisition of Lodestar Marine Insurance late last year.
Lodestar joined Hanseatic Underwriters, Navigators Insurance and Osprey Underwriters in the Thomas Miller stable of fixed premium companies, making it one of the market’s leading players.
So far, Thomas Miller has not integrated the fixed premium acquisitions into the UK P&I Club’s service network, and continues to run them independently as a managing general agent.
But plenty of other P&I clubs with ambitions in the fixed premium markets are prepared to put their own capital behind the business.
North P&I Club launched a fixed-premium business in London last year through subsidiary Sunderland Marine. The new business is backed by North’s capital and linked into its global service network.
Sunderland Marine is focusing on ships of less than 10,000 gt that operate in coastal or regional trades, avoiding the ocean-going trades that are the territory of its parent. It is targeting China, the Far East and some parts of Europe where there is an established fixed premium business.
North’s fixed premium business is headed by Brian Davies, who sees the withdrawal of capacity from the fixed premium market by many Lloyd’s syndicates as a positive.
“Over recent years, the fixed premium P&I market attracted too much capacity, lured by the promise of easy returns. The result? Soft rates and consistently poor financial returns,” Davies said.
“There are promising signs that the market is firming, consistent with reports of hardening rates in the hull and machinery market. It remains to be seen how long this lasts.
“The reputation of any market is predicated upon the service it delivers.”
