by Rebecca Zuill

Hiscox Ltd’s gross written premiums increased year-on-year by 10.1 percent to £1,370.5 million (2012: £1,244.4 million) driven by good growth in insurance business, the Group has announced.

Hiscox, an international specialist insurer headquartered in Bermuda, issued the results in its interim management statement for the first nine months of the year to 30 September.

The company is an international specialist insurance group listed on the London Stock Exchange. There are three main underwriting parts of the Group — Hiscox London Market, Hiscox UK and Europe and Hiscox International. Hiscox London Market underwrites mainly internationally traded business in the London Market — generally large or complex business which needs to be shared with other insurers or needs the international licences of Lloyd’s. Hiscox UK and Hiscox Europe provides a range of specialist insurance for professionals and business customers, as well as high net worth individuals.

In this quarter, Hiscox say they have also benefited from a low level of catastrophe and attritional losses. “Increased competition and a benign claims environment continue to put pressure on rates in reinsurance. As stated previously, in response to these pressures the Group will continue to reduce exposure appropriately, and develop new opportunities in the ILS space,” stated Hiscox.

Bronek Masojada, Hiscox’s chief executive, was quoted as saying: “I am very pleased with the Group’s performance. Our insurance business has seen good growth at both the top and bottom line, and we continue to underwrite reinsurance at the right price. We have diversity by product and geography and see good opportunities for 2014 and beyond.”

Hiscox’s press release continued: “Rates in reinsurance were down at both the June 1 Florida renewals and July 1 renewals with significant declines in Florida. Year-on-year we have seen a 10 percent decrease across the reinsurance book, however we continue to underwrite reinsurance lines profitably. We anticipate further reductions at the January 1 renewals.

Hiscox said they are currently in discussions with Willis regarding their Global 360 facility. “Business in the London Market has always been placed either on a stand-alone, risk-by-risk basis, or grouped together to facilitate placement. We have a lot of experience with such facilities and recently the market has seen an increase in their number and size. We believe they can be beneficial, but we will always stick to our underwriting tenets that we can select individual risks and retain the right of veto. The growing number of such facilities already form part of our premium expectations for next year.”

Hiscox International includes operations in Bermuda, Guernsey and USA.