Fidelis Partnership launches Sevanta to tackle market challenges
Pine Walk, the specialist MGA incubator and a fully owned subsidiary of Bermuda’s Fidelis Partnership, has launched Sevanta, an international casualty MGA focused on niche specialty liability, writing both primary and excess business worldwide.
Sevanta brings the number of specialty MGAs launched under the aegis of Pine Walk to 10.
Other Pine Walk MGAs include Silverflame Re, which writes broad specialty reinsurance business; Radius, which underwrites specialty treaty reinsurance and retro excess of loss programmes; and Tiomanta, which underwrites a broad book of re/insurance energy transition and green energy risks.
Pine Walk provides a range of services that enables entrepreneurial underwriters to set up their own specialist MGA.
Jon Hiller, formerly head of international casualty at Sompo International, will lead Sevanta. He will be joined by senior underwriter George Hutton, previously a portfolio manager in Sompo’s wholesale & specialty casualty unit.
Between them, they bring over 30 years of underwriting experience across Lloyd’s, London and international markets.
Founded in 2017, Pine Walk has now established 12 MGAs and provides custom underwriting, operational and regulatory frameworks to support specialist and innovative underwriting offerings.
In 2024, Pine Walk’s gross written premiums grew by 11% to $900 million. It expects to surpass $1 billion in GWP this year.
Rinku Patel (pictured), group COO of The Fidelis Partnership and CEO of Pine Walk, said: “Sevanta is an important and exciting new entrant to the Pine Walk platform, which will further enhance our MGA portfolio while broadening the range of product capabilities offered through the TFP platform. Responding with leadership, expertise and capacity to solve challenges in the market is at the heart of our approach.
“We now see the opportunity to deliver this in a number of niches in the casualty space, an area we have historically been deliberately underweight.
“We’re delighted to welcome Jon and George, whose multi-decade international experience, deep market expertise and strong broker relationships will be enormous assets to the business.”
Hiller added: “The Fidelis Partnership has built an impressive reputation for its appetite and capability to respond to capacity shortfalls when market dislocation occurs. Against a challenging backdrop for the international casualty market, characterised by high frequency and severity of claims and well-publicised reserve deficiencies, we see a huge opportunity to meet rising client and broker demand for specialty liability products. George and I are thrilled to be working to launch Sevanta and to be joining the Pine Walk platform on its exceptional growth trajectory.”
Fidelis Insurance Group shared with our publication that while it supports The Fidelis Partnership, casualty is not currently within its risk appetite.
Dan Burrows, CEO of Fidelis Insurance Group, said: “The Fidelis Partnership remains the cornerstone partner of Fidelis Insurance Group. However, on occasion our risk appetites will vary and, as casualty business is not currently within the appetite of Fidelis Insurance Group, we have chosen not to participate in the Sevanta Pine Walk Cell. This is an example of how the Binder agreement between us and the MGU is working exactly as intended.
“We wish The Fidelis Partnership all the best with the launch of Sevanta. Looking ahead, we continue to see a strong pipeline of opportunity with the Fidelis Partnership, and we are excited about the opportunities to continue to build our underwriting portfolio with them throughout 2025."
Did you get value from this story? Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox.
