SCOR gains 6.6% price increase at April reinsurance renewals

French reinsurer SCOR has reported that it experienced a 6.6% increase in pricing across its book, while premiums underwritten rose by almost 6% as well, at the recent April 1st reinsurance renewals.

SCOR has consistently sought to expand its reinsurance book at renewals in recent years, deploying more capacity at times where it feels it is being better compensated for doing so.

April 2020 reinsurance renewals were a recent opportunity for growth, with SCOR expanding its gross premiums up for renewal by 5.7% at constant exchange rates.

The EUR 504 million of premiums underwritten at the renewal are set to deliver stronger returns as well, with SCOR saying that its renewal activities benefited from “broadly improving market conditions as evidenced by a 6.6% overall increase in pricing.”

Some 57% of the April 1st reinsurance renewal portfolio was focused on Asia-Pacific, with Japan the largest component.

SCOR said that in Japan, its SCOR Global P&C unit generated 5.4% growth in premiums, securing higher prices and incremental profitable cessions in the process.

At the same time, SCOR said that it partially redeployed some of its capacity from lower to higher layers of Japanese reinsurance programs, after two years characterised by major catastrophe loss impacts.

“The Japanese market demonstrated its long-term approach to reinsurance buying, and commitment to balanced partnerships with their reinsurers, enabling a significant payback of the 2018 and 2019 Cat losses,” SCOR explained.

In India, SCOR Global P&C grew its portfolio and benefited from local market conditions, which it said had begun to improve in 2019. The result was a roughly 30% premium increase in India, while the agriculture renewals are still underway.

In the United States SCOR took a different tack, shrinking its book slightly at the April renewal.

The company said it had a “special focus on profitability improvements thanks to price adjustments” in the United States.

Adding that, “This disciplined approach led to a slight premium decrease as SCOR Global P&C did not renew or decreased its shares on treaties which did not meet its profitability targets.”

The reinsurance firm added that, “These successful reinsurance renewals demonstrate that SCOR Global P&C is fully operational. The business continuity plan is completely implemented. This testifies to the resilience of SCOR’s operating model, its ability to conduct business, to keep up its close client relationships and to generate cash flow in this challenging environment.”

Jean-Paul Conoscente, CEO of SCOR Global P&C, stated, “During the April 1, 2020, renewals, SCOR Global P&C continues to demonstrate discipline in its underwriting approach, with a focus on both rate adequacy and prudent management of our exposures.

“We achieved very positive results overall, recording strong growth in markets and segments where rates and Terms & Conditions were in line with our targets, and foregoing incremental business opportunities where we felt conditions for profitable growth were not met. Japan is a good illustration of our strategic approach: we managed to achieve a 5.4% growth in this market, as the evolution in Property Cat premium linked to the remodeling of our portfolio with reduced exposure to lower frequency events was more than compensated through growth in other lines of business.”