DOHA: Q-Re, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Qatar Insurance Company (QIC), yesterday announced that it expects to write approximately $269m of property, casualty and speciality lines premiums from the January 1 renewals.
On a constant foreign exchange basis, this volume represents an increase of 43 percent from the 2013 expiring renewable base of business.
For 2014, Q-Re expects to maintain momentum for strong growth following the successful expansion of its portfolio in the previous year.
“Q-Re remains on track to building a strong global reinsurance franchise. Our underwriting teams managed to significantly increase our shares in profitable business and successfully established new client relationships. Q-Re also bolstered its presence in the Lloyd’s market through new participations. At the same time, we opted for significant reductions of renewed business in lines and territories where our profitability criteria were not met,” said Gunther Saacke, Chief Executive Officer, Q-Re.
Willi Schuerch, Q-Re Chief Underwriting Officer, added: “We recorded the fastest growth in North American property and credit and surety business as well as in the aviation segment, where we basically started from scratch. Our more established speciality lines, in particular agriculture and casualty classes, also developed very favourably with a growth of 20 to 30 percent.
We chose to shrink our international property catastrophe business by 10 percent, while increasing marine premiums slightly by 15 percent, as Q-Re remains committed to active portfolio management.”
PARIS: French oil group Total has agreed to sell its stake of 15.0 percent in an oil exploration field off Angola to local state oil group Sonangol for $750m, the company said yesterday.
The deal, worth the equivalent of ¤554m, was “in line with Total’s global strategy to actively manage its portfolio and focus its investment capability on core assets,” senior executive for Total’s production in Africa, Jacques Marraud des Grottes said.
The sale concerned Block 15/06, “located approximately 350km northwest of Luanda in deep offshore Angola and covers approximately 2,984 square kilometres, with a water depth ranging from 220 to 1,700 metres,” the company said.
The block has been operated by Italian group Eni with 35 percent, Total 15 percent, Sonangol 15 percent, SSI — a joint affiliate of China’s Sinopec and Sonangol, 25 percent, Norwegian Statoil 5.0 percent, and Falcon Oil Angola Investimentos five percent.
The Peninsula/AFP
