Insurer Brit Ltd has strengthened the team at its Bermudian-based Sussex Capital operation with two managers who were formerly with rival island reinsurers XL Catlin and MS Amlin.

Richard Slater joins Sussex as underwriting director and Adam Champion as senior vice-president, portfolio manager and operations.

Brit launched Sussex Capital, which provides more than $100 million of capacity, at the start of this year. Through Sussex Re, it writes direct collateralised property catastrophe reinsurance and also provides collateralised reinsurance to Brit’s property treaty portfolio.

Mr Slater was previously with XL Catlin in Bermuda, where he was head of international property reinsurance and global property retro.

Before that, Mr Slater held senior property treaty reinsurance roles at Montpelier Re and Ace Tempest Re.

Mr Slater will be responsible for managing property treaty underwriting and strengthening relationships with brokers and investors. He will also underwrite for Brit Syndicate 2987 and 2988 to broaden the Brit client offering and identify opportunities for Sussex Capital to grow.

Mr Champion joins Sussex from MS Amlin where he was head of analytics. He was previously head of catastrophe modelling for Amlin Bermuda, supporting underwriters in the global property business.

Before this, Mr Champion held various reinsurance and capital markets roles in the North American and Bermudian markets.

In his new role, he will focus on portfolio management and operational performance. He will also support the development of Brit’s wider property treaty and catastrophe modelling capability, working closely with the underwriting and exposure management teams in Bermuda, London and the US.

Matthew Wilson, Brit’s chief executive officer, said: “We have a clear ambition to develop Sussex Capital into a leading ILS manager, with both top quartile performance and relevant scale.

“The appointments of Richard and Adam are another step towards this objective, as both are highly regarded in the market and have the relationships and technical expertise to support our growth strategy for Sussex Capital.”

Both appointments are subject to approval by the Department of Immigration.

Mark Allan, Brit’s chief financial officer, said: “Sussex Capital leverages Brit’s track record, technical underwriting capabilities and access to high-quality business to enable investors to participate in the ILS space via an innovative product offering.

“More broadly, Sussex Capital forms part of Brit’s strategy to build long-term relationships with the capital markets, and these appointments further strengthen Brit’s reinsurance capability and access to diversified sources of capital to support property catastrophe and other insurance risk.”

Brit, which has a significant presence in the Lloyd’s of London market, is a subsidiary of Toronto-based Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd.