Biba 2025: Tokio Marine HCC strives to secure three facilities with brokers in 2025

Global specialty insurer Tokio Marine HCC (TMHCC) – part of Japan-based Tokio Marine Group – wants to secure three new facility partnerships with UK general insurance brokers in 2025, to kickstart a “brand new” distribution strategy in this marketplace.

This is according to Stuart Heath, who has been the firm’s head of delegated property since 2019. However, in February 2025, underwriter Heath took on a newly created, additional role to his day job, becoming TMHCC’s international head of distribution.

Although Heath told Insurance Times at this year’s Biba Conference (14 and 15 May 2025) that a more concrete global distribution strategy – aligning his plans with that of his North American counterpart, Brendan Gaine – would be set by the end of July 2025, he did confirm that the insurer does have appetite for “some individual class or single class facilities” in the UK.

He said: “We will look at facilities. I think it’s unlikely we will look at multiclass facilities – that is quite tough for us to digest at the moment, probably a bit early for us. But we will look at some individual class or single class facilities.”

For Heath, acquisitive brokers actively engaging in M&A are of particular interest here, as he feels there is a greater opportunity for TMHCC to support newly bought businesses get up to speed on facility creation.

He explained: “When [a broker brings a firm into] their own house, [it] already [has] a distribution strategy [and] partnership arrangements, so [it] will want to encourage the business [it has] acquired to fit into [this] placement strategy. That must create opportunities for [a business] like us to have a chance of winning some new business.

“It’s much harder to win business from what is seemingly a happy incumbent. Whereas if you’ve got [a firm that has] acquired a book or a business, there must be some opportunities there where [it] can see some leakage that needs to be put into a partner – and that must be something that we should have a chance of looking at.”

Attending this year’s Biba Conference has therefore been a benefit for Heath in his new role, with the two-day event boasting 9,600 delegates – many of which are brokers.

“I’m really pleased there’s so many senior folk here,” Heath noted. “That’s really impressive about this Biba Conference, there’s been some really heavy hitting people here, of senior posts. And that’s good.”

Heath added that TMHCC’s fledging distribution strategy will also include being “more open to binding authorities” and writing delegated authority business, as well as increasing its market share with Lloyd’s brokers that have offices in the US.

TMHCC also wants to “write more construction business” – specifically around engineering risks – “on a quota share or an insurance basis”, as well as have greater involvement in the burgeoning “energy transition” market, including providing cover around renewable energy and power generation, Heath confirmed.

“I’m going around and seeing the brokers and making sure we get our share, ensuring that we execute the parent [company’s] plan,” he told Insurance Times. “You can genuinely see there’s a willingness in the business to buy into this distribution strategy.”

Adopting a ‘joined up approach’

Heath’s appointment marked the beginning of a new internal structure at TMHCC’s international business. This was followed by May 2025 promotions of specialty lines chief underwriting officer Thibaud Hervy to chief executive and London market chief underwriting officer Simon Button to chief underwriting officer.

This marriage between the specialty lines and London market arms of TMHCC contributed to the firm’s desire to create an international head of distribution, Heath explained.

He said: “It made sense that now was the right time to have a head of distribution, so that someone can go into those businesses, understand who their primary supporters are, understand where the best relationships are and see if we can find ways in which we can explore further opportunities for the other business units.

“As we start to transition towards a softer market, we need to have more of a joined up approach between all of our businesses.

“I wouldn’t say that we’re siloed, but we’re very focused within each of our individual business units to make money [and] we don’t tend to share the brokers and connections that we have between each other.

“When you’ve been so focused on your own profit and loss, it’s how can we get the leaders of that business to express where they have super relationships and how we can nurture that into other business lines.

“We’ve got a wonderful opportunity. It’s not actually a difficult job to do. It’s just teasing out those relationships and finding the right person to talk to in that broker and drop them into the new business line.”

Attention seeking

Alongside this focus on facilities and distribution, Heath noted that a further ambition of TMHCC in 2025 is “to whisper a little bit louder” about the business as a whole and its future plans.

Despite boasting more than 4,000 staff and writing around $3bn (£2.26bn) gross written premium in the international business last year, Heath believes the organisation has “quietly got on with life” and “been very much below the radar”.

Heath said: “Getting the brand name across is important.

“People don’t really know us and it’s a $3bn business just in international alone. It’s huge. So, getting that name out there and getting people to realise how significant we are as a business. [Giving] people comfort around the security of who we are and the credit rating and all those good things that one needs to know about.

“I’m not suggesting that we’re going to be shouting from every single rooftop, but I think we just need to whisper a little bit louder than we are at the moment.”