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William Dewsall Gable

Gable chief executive William Dewsall today vowed to get back on track despite his business racking up a £24.3m pre-tax loss in 2015.

Dewsall said the unrated insurer would now need a ’sigfnicant restructuring of the group’s business and scale of underwriting operations.’

He said Gable, currently suspended from the AIM stock market, was in discussions with other parties which would pave the way for the business to become Solvency 2 compliant. 

Gable said the losses last year were due to:

* A £7.5m capital injection to shore up a reserving gap

* An extra £7.9m needed after a payment from an after-event insurance policy did not meet expectations

* Losses of £2m from the December UK storms 

* £4.25m goodwill writedown relating to the acquisition of Gable in 2005. 

Despite the losses, Dewsall said there was discussions taking place that would help Gable become regulatory compliant. 

Dewsall said: “Over the ten years since start up in 2005, we have grown a significant business in terms of written premiums, commercial reach and capability, underwriting across a core of customers and strategic niche classes of business in nine European countries and building a strong brand of trust with SMEs.

“Following the announcement of a strategic review of Gable’s business, I can confirm that, after consultation with our regulator, the FMA, we are taking steps to implement a solution which will operate under the new Solvency II regime.

“The regulatory landscape since we started the business has changed dramatically which has necessitated the strategic review and we are now proceeding with discussions with a range of parties which will require a significant restructuring of the Group’s business and scale of underwriting operations in order to provide a solution to ensure compliance with Solvency II across all lines of business.”

Gable said gross written premiums increased 14% to £91.1m. Brexit would not affect the firm as passporting into Europe was guaranteed due to Gable’s Lichtenstein location.