12 July 2018News

Challenges prompt Brit and Advent to explore merging Lloyd's business

Brit and Advent Capital Holdings have announced the potential combination of some of their Lloyd’s business in the wake of a strategic review.

According to the companies this possible merger of business in response to what they described as the considerable strategic challenges currently facing the Advent syndicate as it has been striving to build a significant presence in its target areas of business, in an extremely competitive market place. Both companies are owned by Fairfax Financial Holdings.

Advent said that it has been carrying out detailed portfolio reviews that are intended to optimise its underwriting portfolio and business model.  The company will now focus on working with Brit to consider which parts of the portfolio can be transferred, as well as building plans to run off the remainder of the business.

Advent and Brit said that they are consulting with staff about the proposals and working together to maximise their respective strategic strengths, and undertaking a detailed portfolio review.

Matthew Wilson, chief executive officer (CEO) of Brit, commented: “We are working closely with the management team of Advent to design what we believe will be an optimum portfolio for our business and look forward to welcoming Advent team members to Brit. These are challenging times, nonetheless with our clear strategy for the future we will collectively continue to build upon our track record of outperformance.”

“We believe this is the right and best approach to building on the value we have created in recent years at Advent,” said Nigel Fitzgerald, CEO of Advent. “We look forward to working closely with the team at Brit to achieve that objective.”

Prem Watsa, chairman of Fairfax, the parent of Advent and Brit, commented, “Fairfax’s commitment to allow our businesses to operate on a decentralized basis is unaffected by this action, as is our resolve to always do the right thing by our customers and our people. Recognising the challenges Advent faces today, and following consultation with Nigel Fitzgerald and Lloyd’s, we were happy to adopt this course of action.”




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More on this story

News
14 June 2018   Brit has made a trio of executive appointments to the boards of a number of its subsidiaries, including its own. These appointments are subject to regulatory approval.
News
14 February 2018   Brit has completed and expanded its Versutus 2018 Series Notes. This is the fourth annual renewal and continued expansion of this Bermuda domiciled special purpose insurer, which now has invested capital of $187 million.
News
3 August 2018   Brit has announced that it made a first half 2018 net profit of $12.9 million, down significantly from the $139.7 million it made over the same period of 2017.