C&G positions itself for the future

It is indeed my pleasure to inform you of some very exciting developments at C&G Underwriting Managers (Pty) Ltd. As you know, C&G was established almost ten years ago by a group of seasoned practioners with the vision of establishing itself as one of the leaders in the Sub-Saharan engineering and related guarantee insurance markets. More recently, through our partnership with GCube (through Lloyds of London), C&G has been widely recognised as the leader in the provision of market-leading insurance and related risk solutions for the burgeoning South African renewable energy industry.

I firmly believe that over the past almost ten-year period, C&G has laid the foundation that now allows it to take the business to the next level and entrench its position as one of the leading engineering & related guarantee insurance underwriters in the market.

Going forward, we believe that a separate dedicated focus on each of our target markets (with each such focus area appropriately staffed by an experienced & highly skilled team) would be key to our ongoing success. We have consequently re-structured C&G into the following three dedicated businesses, namely:

• C&G Engineering (exclusively focused on the Sub-Saharan engineering insurance markets);

 

• C&G Guarantees (exclusively focused on the engineering related guarantee as well as retail fuel guarantee markets); and

• C&G Renew-Risk (exclusively focused on the rapidly growing renewable energy & related insurance markets).

The established C&G team of Doug Chisholm, Jimmy Mills, Lucas Barnard, Barney de Ru, Ockie Grundling (Consultant) and myself are furthermore in the very fortunate position in that, as part of the abovementioned re-structure, we have managed to secure the services of some leading industry players to join forces with C&G. In particular:

• Timothy Paramasivan (previously a Director of Refine Underwriting Managers) has joined C&G Guarantees as its MD; and

• Keith Barlow-Jones (previously the head of ONE FINANCIAL SERVICES’ Engineering division) has joined C&G Engineering as its MD.

In addition to my role as Group MD, I will also take the reins of C&G Renew-Risk (ably assisted by James Robson).

Timothy and Keith will both also become key shareholders in the respective abovementioned dedicated and focused businesses as well as directors of the C&G Group. We are truly excited about the role that Timothy & Keith will play in taking C&G to the next level. In addition to Keith & Timothy, three other experienced underwriting staff will also be joining the business (two in C&G Guarantees and one in C&G Engineering). We are confident that Keith & Timothy will be able to add significant new additional premium load onto the existing C&G infrastructure through their existing broker partnership networks.

In summary, going forward C&G will be in a position to, amongst other things, offer you the following:

• Three dedicated and exclusively focused businesses;

• Each lead by recognised leaders in their respective areas of focus;

• A comprehensive, cradle-to-grave and competitive product offering in each of our focus areas;

• Arguably some of the largest insurance capacities in town (R800m in respect of engineering insurance, almost R5 billion in respect of renewable energy projects and more than R100m in respect of construction & related guarantees);

• A team of 13 experienced & highly skilled underwriting staff;

• A back-office & service support team of 7, excluding the support team (of more than 10 people) employed by our strategic partner;

• AA rated local paper through our Guardrisk cell (and Lloyds paper in respect of renewable energy);

• Only A (or better) internationally rated reinsurers (including Africa Re, Hannover Re, Everest Re, Scor and R&V);

• Offices in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town & Windhoek;

Lastly, and most importantly, I would like to thank you for your continued support and I look forward to strengthening our partnership going forward on the back of the above-described exciting developments. At C&G, we recognise that without the support of your partnership we have no future and as such our entire business is operated so as to ensure that our partnership with you and other independent brokers is optimised.

If you have any questions about the abovementioned re-structure, please feel free to contact me on +27 (0)82 447 5969 or e-mail me at [email protected]. I will also try my utmost to personally visit most of you over the coming weeks.