Infiniti RE – Reinsurance for Africa
27 November 2013 | Company News & Results | Infiniti Insurance | Paul Ray, Infiniti
Infiniti Re, the newly established division of Infiniti Insurance provides an additional income stream into the Infiniti holding company – and gives diversity to the premium and exposure mix of the current portfolio.
Headed by Paul Ray the recently retired M.D. of Africa Reinsurance has launched Infiniti Re to offer reinsurance solutions, both treaty and facultative to smaller, niche insurers in the South African market, as well as developing a book of inwards reinsurance from outside of South Africa’s borders initially in Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia and Swaziland – and thereafter expanding into the greater sub-Saharan region.
"It is our intention initially to offer small reinsurance lines both proportional and non-proportional and provide local capacity to retain premiums written locally with a view to stemming, in some small way, the outflow of premiums and capacity to international markets” says Paul Ray.
He further indicated that having had the opportunity to travel extensively into sub-Saharan Africa, and therefore having an excellent understanding of the challenges of this environment – he is confident that he has a good solution for the African market. Following a recent visit to Nairobi, Kenya, business has already begun to flow in from companies and brokers in this region.
As reinsurance placements are generally channelled via Reinsurance Brokers, Infiniti Re will concentrate their efforts on strengthening partnerships with the Reinsurance Broker market locally and abroad whilst continuing to build partnerships with cedants directly.
Although Infiniti Re is still relatively small by comparison to its competitors, Paul believes that they are able to offer the market well capitalised security and most importantly, personal service and open discussions with a view to seeking reinsurance solutions for the benefit of all parties concerned.
One of the challenges that face any new player in the market is that of sustainability and Infiniti Re intends building on the well-established Infiniti brand. He will also be introducing certain current Infiniti partners into the sub-Saharan markets where there may well be synergy between Infiniti Insurance and Infiniti Re business partners - a win for all parties concerned.
