Klapton e-newsletter archive
Summer 2021
Klapton demonstrates strong performance in H1 2021.
Building on the successes achieved in 2020, Klapton has delivered further strong growth in premium levels through the first half of 2021. Gross written premiums increased to €20.9m from €12.3m for the corresponding period in 2020, a rise of 70% year on year. The largest contributors to the rise were our Asian/Middle East operations together with our West African business, and our Sureties division also performed well. Our net underwriting result similarly rose from €1.9m in 2020 to €3.5m for the half year to 30th June 2021, a rise of 84%, demonstrating our continued strong underwriting business acceptance criteria. Finally, net profits increased from €0.9m in 2020 to €2.1m in 2021 as we retain control over our cost base whilst investing in our team through investment in ensure our back office operations can support the growth and also that our underwriting team is staffed sufficiently to ensure risks are assessed in line with our governance criteria.
We continue to live in a changing world with this dreadful pandemic continuing to spread and making business even more difficult to manage, as if it was not already a challenge. It tests all company leadership with the difficulty of effective planning, recruitment and the development of new products and markets with travel so disrupted.
New Year 2021
2020 saw an exceptional performance from Klapton, with GWP rising from €12.9m to €29.3m, an increase of 127% year on year. That this result has been achieved whilst operating under the extremely challenging circumstances of COVID 19 makes this all the more remarkable.
This growth is attributed to our focus on the development and support to our Hub operations in the Gulf, Asia, Anglophone Africa and Francophone Africa who have provided an increase in both the number of risks presented and the range of brokers who want to work with Klapton. The Hub operations have done an excellent job in promoting the Klapton brand in their respective regions.
Our underwriting result and net profitability both increased significantly over 2019, demonstrating our control over the risk acceptance process and expense base alongside the growth achieved in the premium levels.
Winter 2020
Klapton’s strong performance continues into Q3 2020
Despite the prevailing market conditions and challenges due to the continuing COVID crisis, Klapton has reported another excellent set of results for Q3 2020 and 2020 year-to-date as a whole.
Gross Written Premiums for Q3 was €9.9m, the year-to-date figure is €22.2m. This compares to a year-to-date 2019 premium of €7.8m, representing an exceptional growth of 185% on the prior year.
Our underwriting profits are €3.0m for the year-to-date, with a resulting net profit of €1.5m which represents a strong return.
This result would not have been achieved without the hard work of the team at Klapton pulling together under extremely difficult and challenging circumstances. We would like to thank our team, our colleagues in the Hub reinsurance brokerage operations in Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya and Asia/Middle East for their continual excellent service to the market and promotion of the Klapton brand.
Spring 2020
We hear a lot about the Exit Strategy these days, and if this crisis is something that will simply disappear then Exit Strategy is the right definition of what we and governments should do – to structure a balanced approach between economic recovery and public health.
However it seems that the Coronavirus isn’t really going to disappear in the short term – once a vaccination is developed, approved and manufactured the Coronavirus (or rather the COVID-19) will be less intensified, but maybe we should adopt a better phrase than “Exit Strategy” – and that is “Containing Strategy”.
We don’t know how long it will take until we can feel safe about the Coronavirus, but we must adopt measures to ensure we can deal with this crisis, and in this respect, it is also an opportunity.
Periodical newsletter: our response to COVID-19
We are reaching out to you to keep you informed of the measures Klapton Insurance Company Ltd has been taking as a result of the pandemic.
In these unprecedented times, our main purpose is to stay in line with the respective Government precautionary measures in each country where we operate; and for the welfare of our employees, most of our Klapton Insurance Company Ltd teams have been working from home for the past three weeks. The teams are fully active and available for all your insurance, reinsurance, risk management and employee benefit needs.
We continue to proactively talk and listen to our clients and partners to maintain open lines of communication and we would welcome any attempt from you to reach out to us on any matter of interest to you.
Our hubs are finding ways to actively facilitate customized insurance solutions as well as claims advice and support to protect your client’s welfare and well-being.
Although the global pandemic and its consequences have come upon us all suddenly, we continue to work very hard for our clients in unsettled times and we appreciate your
cooperation.
Please do not hesitate to reach out to our teams if you have any questions or concerns. They are easily reachable by email and mobile phone.
New Year 2020
As we begin a new year, we reflect on what has been a very successful 2019 for Klapton, and we would like to share with you some of the achievements made over this year.
We have seen a large, but controlled rise in gross written premium, from €6.1m in 2018 to €12.9m in 2019 driven by important contributions from our three main business hubs, Anglophone Africa, Francophone Africa and Asia. These contributions justify our decision to develop a local presence in the markets through our broker partners in those regions and we would like to give our thanks to those teams for the excellent business support received.
Importantly, as well as increasing our premium levels this was matched by excellent growth in the underwriting profits, from €1.1m to €3.8m, demonstrating that our strict underwriting criteria has ensured that claims are kept to acceptable levels and produces a profitable result for Klapton. Net profit also rose from €0.5m to €1.1m – there was a considerable increase in administrative expenses, we feel this is required to reward and retain key staff and also ensure that our operations can continue to support the business growth.
Summer 2019
Welcome to our Summer newsletter.
The Board of Klapton are pleased to announce the significant improvement in performance in the period to 31 July 2019. Gross Written Premiums for the period are €6.2m, which already exceed the premiums for the whole of 2018 and are also a 108% increase on the forecast premiums. We have seen a huge increase in the number of risks being presented to us from our existing brokers, from new brokers and the hub in West Africa, Klapton Management Africa.
The Board are also keen to stress that this increase, although impressive, is aligned within our risk assessment criteria and we maintain our strong underlying guidelines, accepting the same % of risk offered to us in line with prior years. This is reflected in improving the levels of underwriting performance from forecast and also 2018 results.
Cost levels have increased from 2018, but this is in line with forecast and is primarily the strengthening of the Board and Audit Committees in line with our Corporate Governance continuous enhancement.
The Board of Klapton is committed to developing the business, as well as providing support to newly formed hub in West Africa, Klapton Management Africa we have also invested in setting up a new hub to service the East African/Anglophone Africa region, Klapton Reinsurance Brokers Limited, a new company formed in Nairobi, Kenya which is currently applying for its regulatory Licence. We are hoping this will commence business in Q4 of 2019. The CEO and CFO recently visited the hub in West Africa and met with Senior Management there.
The Maritime Sureties business continues to develop apace with a number of structured deals under consideration. Klapton also recently committed to utilise the leading risk management system from Marsoft. Our Maritime Sureties team have also published several articles on our website about industry related issues which can be found below.
Our ratings were confirmed by both GCR (B- stable) and Bloomfield (A1- short term and BBB+ long term – with stable outlook). We will commence our first rating process with S&P in Q4 of 2019.
We continue to look for new business proposals, please contact us at info@klapton.com with any inquiries.
Sir Bernard Zissman
Spring 2019
Welcome to our Spring newsletter.
Klapton is extremely pleased to report a significant rise in Gross Written Premium in the 4 months to 30th April 2019. GWP was up 117% against our forecast revenue for the period, and 200% compared to prior year premiums. The rise in premiums is attributed to a number of factors:
* A significant rise in risks presented to us from existing brokers
* Significant increase in the number of brokers working with us
* The newly formed reinsurance broker, Klapton Management Africa SARL, which is generating a lot of new risks and interest in Klapton in the CIMA region. For more details on Klapton Management Africa SARL please see the article below
* Continuous programme of networking and improved industry experience and relationships
* Our strong FCFA rating provides confidence to our brokers and insurers/reinsurers
While we continue to balance our GWP across our three key business lines (sureties, facultative reinsurance and treaty reinsurance), we see a rise in interest in our Maritime Sureties business – if you have any queries on possible transactions, please contact the Head of the Maritime Sureties Committee, Russell Parker on Russell.parker@Klapton.com
Although we are pleased with the start to the Year, we intend to build on this over the course of 2019, with a number of new projects in the pipeline, including a Kenyan reinsurance brokerage partnership, new IT system, other new business teams.
We continue to look for new business proposals and expanding our team, please contact us at info@klapton.com with any inquiries.
Sir Bernard Zissman
February 2019
Welcome to all our brokers, clients, insurers and reinsurers to our first newsletter of 2019.
We are very pleased to announce our unaudited results for 2018, building upon our successes of 2017, we managed to increase GWP by a further 2.5% year on year to €6.1m, and what we are also proud to announce is that we have achieved this whilst improving our underwriting performance, demonstrating our continued strict underwriting policy.
Another positive factor was our decision to cautiously re-enter the treaty markets. This has meant that our portfolio of premiums is now generated more equally across several core lines, rather than in prior years where we had significant reliance on the success of one line.
Our cost base increased in the year, but this was in line with budget, as we continue our planned investment in the continual improvements of Corporate Governance, staffing, systems and controls. Even taking this into account, we managed to increase our bottom line profitability on 2017.
We look forward to 2019, where we expect new broker partnerships to be opened which will significantly increase our presence in key markets. In 2019, we have already established our new Maritime Sureties team to focus on the increased demand in that business.
Klapton’s Senior Management
Periodical newsletter sent in January
Klapton Insurance Company’s periodical summary for November-December 2018 sent out in January to Klapton’s list of brokers.
Winter 2018
At this time of year we all pause to reflect on what has gone before and what we might expect next year. Whilst parts of the world continue to experience traumatic times either by natural or human inspired suffering, others carry on with life endeavouring to provide for their families and support those around them.
I have been lucky to have worked over many years with dedicated and committed professionals who seek to provide clients with a service which meets expectations and enhances their business offering. On behalf of myself and Klapton Insurance may I extend to all our readers, clients and those considering becoming clients together with their families an enjoyable holiday season and a successful, peaceful and rewarding 2019.
Sir Bernard Zissman
Summer 2018
I am delighted to have been invited to join the Board of Klapton and furthered honoured to have been elected Non-Executive Chairman. I look forward to working with the experienced and entrepreneurial team at Klapton to further enhance our offer to clients and this will be greatly improved by the recent achievement of the Bloomfield rating which is the result of hard work and committed performance.
Sir Bernard Zissman
Spring 2018
Klapton has enjoyed a strong start to 2018, buoyed by the completion of several sureties transactions in the African mining sector. Our supplementary business lines, inward facultative reinsurance and direct sales continue to show improvements on the previous year which coupled with our strict underwriting criteria means that we are pleased with our levels of underwriting profit.
Our pipeline for the remainder of 2018 is extremely strong and we are confident that this will be converted into revenues which will exceed our forecasted targets, with particular regard to a number of significant opportunities in the maritime sector which are well in progress.
Additionally we have continued our commitment to strong corporate governance by the addition of two experienced non-executive directors in 2018, being Sir Bernard Zissman and Tim Eppel.
January 2018
As we move into the New Year, firstly we would like pause for a moment and look back and reflect upon the achievements made by Klapton in 2017.
Our draft 2017 results show a significant growth in GWP to €6.0m due largely to the excellent performance in our sureties and guarantees lines, supported by the sustained growth in both the inward facultative and direct business lines.
Looking forward to 2018, we are confident we can build upon the foundations of our successes in 2017, utilising our excellent relationships with brokers, reinsurers, introducers and other leading market professionals. And not forgetting our own hardworking Klapton team!