SiriusPoint CEO Egan targets steady growth with 15% ROE, says peers risk chasing volume

SiriusPoint

15/09/2025 18:32

By James Thaler

Sept 15 - (The Insurer) - SiriusPoint CEO Scott Egan said it is prioritizing discipline over volume as the market softens and targeting a 15% return on equity.

Many peers will miss growth targets, while others risk doing "stupid things” on pricing, Egan told The Insurer at last week's Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous, where he said the tone of conversations was markedly different, with counterparties more eager to work with SiriusPoint.

“That narrative is gone now,” he said of its past challenges, adding: “Lots of people want to talk to us … business (is) getting done.”

EGAN EMPHASIZES DISCIPLINE OVER GROWTH

Egan said some growth plans across the market "don’t work”.

“Everyone’s growing and demand isn’t increasing at the same rate as everyone’s growth plans … either growth targets are going to be missed, which I’m okay with because pricing discipline is the number one thing, or stupid things are going to happen.”

That, he said, explained why SiriusPoint is prepared to step back from chasing top-line expansion.

“If I have to pull back from growth to keep pricing discipline, no issues whatsoever,” he said. “We want to under-promise and over-deliver.”

The emphasis on returns reflects what Egan sees as the industry’s biggest challenge: capital scarcity.

“We are not seeing a lot of new equity capital coming into our industry,” he said. “There’s a good reason for that, which is we haven’t made much money … most years (we’ve) not covered the cost of capital.”

He said investors have grown wary of reinsurance and are redirecting funds into other parts of the insurance value chain.

“If we do something stupid and drive rates to uneconomic levels, don’t moan when there’s no equity capital,” he warned. “Investors much prefer the distribution space, which is where we’ve seen the capital going.”

‘BORING BUT STEADY’ GROWTH

Egan said SiriusPoint’s results demonstrated what can be achieved with a less volatile portfolio.

The company posted a 15.4% ROE in the first half, despite California wildfires and aviation losses.

“If you can keep printing money at a 15% return … that’s the part that’s undervalued,” he said, linking the performance to SiriusPoint’s measured growth trajectory and highlighting how it rebuilt scale after exits.

SiriusPoint had around $2.2 billion in gross written premium in 2021 but has since exited close to $1.1 billion of business, most significantly international property catastrophe. Despite that, its GWP is on track to top $3.5 billion this year.

Egan said its growth is deliberately steady.

“The growth graveyard has many graves,” he said. “We’ll do what’s right for our business … we’ll be competitive, but flexible in volume.”

He also questioned what he sees as overhyped solutions in the market.

“There’s a flavor-of-the-month conversation, which is sidecars and ILS—if you’ve got a nose, you’re doing one,” he said. “Everyone thinks it’s something unique ... I don’t think it is," he said, adding that while "they've got a place to play”, this was not as a strategy in themselves.

For Egan, the lesson of this year’s Monte Carlo is that consistency and discipline will define long-term winners.

Three years into his tenure since joining as CEO in September 2022, Egan said SiriusPoint’s emphasis is now firmly on embedding discipline and compounding predictable results.

“We want to build a business that does what it says on the tin,” he said.