REG - Helios Underwriting - AGM Statement

Helios UnderwritingAnnouncement

28/06/2024 07:00

For best results when printing this announcement, please click on link below:
http://newsfile.refinitiv.com/getnewsfile/v1/story?guid=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20240628:nRSb2542Ua&default-theme=true

RNS Number : 2542U  Helios Underwriting Plc  28 June 2024

Annual General Meeting (AGM)

London, June 28, 2024 - Helios Underwriting, the only publicly traded
investment company offering  access to a spread portfolio of (re)insurance
risk at Lloyd's of London, the world's largest insurance market, will today
hold its Annual General Meeting (AGM) at 9.30am at the City of London Club, 19
Old Broad Street, London.

Interim Executive Chairman, Michael Wade, will address Shareholders on the
Company's progress and strategic direction. Key extracts from his remarks are
outlined below:

An excellent 2023, supported by favourable market conditions

The outstanding performance of the Lloyd's market, with a net combined ratio
of 84%, £5.3 billion in investment returns, and profits of £10.7 billion for
2023, underscores the favourable market conditions in which the Company
currently operates and which we anticipate will continue into 2024.

For Helios, 2023 was a transformative year reporting a significant rise in
profits and return of capital demonstrating the success of the strategy to
build the capacity portfolio as the prospects for underwriting profitability
improved. Helios's share of the capacity portfolio and strong investment
performance have delivered a comprehensive profit of £29.9 million for 2023.

In 2024, our gross capacity portfolio has increased to £507 million and the
retained proportion by Helios shareholders has risen to £392 million,
although allowing for mid-year participations the overall number will rise to
£512m and £397m respectively.

This growth has been achieved by both using our own capital, and by means of
quota share and excess of loss reinsurance and by attracting third party
capital to participate alongside Helios on its Lloyd's syndicate capacity
portfolio. Deploying the funds raised in the issue the Unsecured Loan Notes in
December 2023 geared the Helios capital stack for the 2024 year of account but
which we will utilise to reduce costs into 2025 as we form a smaller
proportion of the overall syndicate portfolio

Commitment to spread syndicate portfolio strategy

We will continue actively to manage a balanced portfolio of Lloyd's syndicate
participations.  This strategy also allows us to continue attracting
third-party capital, which develops a stream of fee income for Helios, and has
already seen success with our 'starter-homes' concept and from the support by
existing Members of Lloyd's where they, in effect, rent capacity from us per
year of account.

As a part of the overall 2024 syndicate portfolio we took the decision to
support recently established or new syndicates where we felt there were
exceptional underwriting skill-sets mostly focused upon specialist business
accounts providing access to exposures that diversify our portfolio.  By
definition, the proportion of new syndicate start-ups will reduce into 2025.

We will now manage the operating costs so that the expense ratio of the
Company will show a significant reduction in 2025.

In view of the attractive future earnings, we will consult with shareholders
over the coming months and look at all options for a capital allocation
framework that will balance investment in growth, the gradual reduction of our
financial gearing and Shareholder distributions in the form of dividends and
share-buy backs.

 

 

Directorate changes

We recently announced the departure of Martin Reith to pursue other
opportunities and wish him well for the future. We thank him for his
significant contribution to the Company in building the scale of the syndicate
portfolio.  On 7(th) June, we announced that Nigel Hanbury will move to a
non-executive role and the Company will seek additional independent
non-executives where they can offer experience in Risk and Audit respectively.
I am pleased to advise that John Chambers, who has considerable Risk
experience, will join as an independent Non-Executive Director immediately
following this AGM. We are also seeking to appoint an independent director
with audit experience. The Board is committed to best governance practices and
we want to ensure a majority of the Board be independent. My own move to
interim executive chairman has caused an imbalance of independent directors
which we are looking to resolve as soon as is practicable.

Positive outlook

We remain confident that our spread Lloyd's syndicate portfolio for 2024
should generate attractive returns, alongside the exceptional pipeline profits
already earned. We aim to attract more third party capital to participate in
our 2025 portfolio, and consequently reducing the Helios retained proportion,
but with the opportunity of generating a greater fee income. We are uniquely
positioned to capitalise on the attractive pipeline presented by the excellent
market conditions and maintain our status as the pre-eminent provider of
private capital into the Lloyd's market.

 

For further information, please contact:

Helios Underwriting plc

Michael Wade - Interim Executive Chairman

Michael.Wade@huwplc.com (mailto:Michael.Wade@huwplc.com)

+44 203 880 7518

Arthur Manners - Chief Financial Officer

Arthur.Manners@huwplc.com

+44 (0)203 965 6441

 

Deutsche Numis (Nomad and
Broker)

Giles Rolls / Charles
Farquhar

+44 (0)20 7260 1000

 

FTI Consulting

Ed Berry / Nathan Hambrook-Skinner

+44 (0)7703 330 199 / +44 (0)7977 817 092

 

About Helios

Helios provides a limited liability direct investment into the Lloyd's
insurance market and is quoted on the London Stock Exchange's AIM market
(ticker: HUW). Helios trades within the Lloyd's insurance market writing
approximately £507m of capacity for the 2024 account. The portfolio provides
a good spread of business being concentrated in property & casualty
insurance and reinsurance. For further information please visit
www.huwplc.com.

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact
rns@lseg.com (mailto:rns@lseg.com)
 or visit
www.rns.com (http://www.rns.com/)
.

RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our
Privacy Policy (https://www.lseg.com/privacy-and-cookie-policy)
.   END  AGMQKOBDBBKBOAB