Atlantic Insurance and Reinsurance Brokers is setting up shop in Houston, Texas, as it targets the US energy and marine markets.
Such expansion moves have been rare in the smaller boutique marine insurance broking sector during the business uncertainty caused by the pandemic.
Operating as Atlantic Gulf Insurance Brokers the new Houston business will offer to broker all the standard lines of marine insurance cover. It will also work on non-marine, shore-based insurance lines including employer's liability and worker's compensation cover.
The move will give the company direct access to the US insurance markets rather than having to go through third-party wholesale brokers.
Atlantic said it already has 20 terms of business agreements in place with US carriers.
Atlantic Gulf will be headed by Barry Buchan who is the founding partner of London marine and energy wholesale broker Newman Martin and Buchan.
Buchan said: “We opened Atlantic Gulf to take advantage of Atlantic’s global reach and our wealth of experience.”
The move marks another step forward in the development of Atlantic which was started by chief executive Manuel Ferrandez from its Madrid headquarters in 2006. It became a Lloyd’s of London approved broker in 2011 and has also opened offices in Miami and Bogota.
Ferrandez said: “The team we have assembled out of our Houston office are all top-level talent. This is a tremendously exciting opportunity to work with the maritime industry out of the Gulf of Mexico, and I know the Atlantic Gulf team is one hundred percent committed.”
