Insurance giant looks to China for growth

Specialist UK insurance and re-insurance company, Lloyd's of London, plans to double its premiums in its China platforms to 900 million yuan ($134 million; 824 million euros) in 2015 due to the country's market potential.

Lloyd's opened a branch office in Beijing on March 16. Under the new branch license, Lloyd's will be able to provide non-life insurance and re-insurance services within the Beijing municipal administrative region.

Lloyd's also announced the appointment of Chen Songlin as general manager of the Beijing branch.

"The new office will allow us to operate more closely with the Chinese insurance industry in Beijing," says Lloyd's chairman John Nelson. "Beijing accounts for 70 percent of our business in China."

He says the premiums in China's platforms have been growing rapidly from a very small base, currently having reached 450 million yuan. Nelson says he views China as the single largest long-term growth opportunity for Lloyd's.

Most of Lloyd's business still concentrates on developed countries. The US market takes up about 40 percent of its global business. Nelson says China will be the second-largest insurance market after the United States by 2020.

Lloyd's created a hub in Shanghai in 2007. The Lloyd's China platform is growing in strength and size. The number of syndicates in the platform has grown from four to 22.

The kinds of business Lloyd's is engaged in include catastrophe, marine, aviation, energy, construction insurance and new emerging specialist insurances such as supply-chain, cyber and reputation. Lloyd's also aims to bring these lines into the Chinese market.

"For the moment, insurance penetration by specialist products is very important to the Chinese economy as businesses need risk mitigation, so our business hopefully will grow," Nelson says, indicating the insurance penetration rate in China is very low, such as catastrophe insurance. "What is driving us into the market is under-insurance."

"However, it's difficult to grow in a market like China because it's enormous and there are a huge number of players. Our strategy is to work with the domestic insurance carriers here. We have a very strong relationship with them and this relationship will expand through opening a branch in Beijing," Nelson adds.

He emphasized that Lloyd's is in China to complement the domestic insurance business and jointly develop new products, which Chinese carriers can re-insure, but not to compete with it.

For instance, China Reinsurance (Group) Corp, a state-owned re-insurance group in China, entered the Lloyd's market in 2011. In 2014 it received approval from Lloyd's to transform its existing special purpose syndicate into a stand-alone syndicate.

Lloyd's regards the One Belt, One Road strategy - the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road initiative from President Xi Jinping's administration - as a huge opportunity for its development in China.

Nelson says: "Infrastructure is crucial, not just in China, but in many parts of the world. Financiers are focused on improving infrastructure for competitive reasons. That is frankly a big opportunity for the insurance industry, particularly for specialist insurance."

Regarding the China Risk Oriented Solvency System, a more robust solvency supervision system from the Chinese government, Nelson says: "We welcome C-ROSS. As the Chinese insurance industry grows and becomes sophisticated, it is important that there is a sophisticated and prudent capital evaluation mechanism."

Meanwhile, Nelson says he hopes the liberalization of capital coming into China will continue to improve the insurance penetration rate and diversify the risk internationally outside the country.

Lloyd's also expects to increase its footprint in South America, including Mexico, Columbia, Brazil, Chile, Peru, and countries in Asia, such as Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore and Malaysia.

In 2014, 94 syndicates were underwriting insurance at Lloyd's, covering all classes of business from more than 200 countries and territories worldwide.

fanfeifei@chinadaily.com.cn