Atrium Space Consortium achieves "successful" launch

The Atrium Space Insurance Consortium (ASIC) has announced a successful start, gaining support from five Lloyd's syndicates and the Lloyd's broking community, since its inception earlier this year. In line with the business plan, 12 risks have been written to date.

The underwriting team is based in London and a technical arm in Canada and is led by space underwriter David Wade. David Hoffer, Robin Gubby, and Beth Grant, who have been leading providers of consultancy to the insurance market for the last decade, provide the technical ability and experience. The underwriting team of David Wade, Lee Davis and Brian Spark translate the engineering risk assessment into uniquely crafted insurance policies.

The commercial space market has started a period of substantial and steady growth. This growth will continue for some considerable time to come as new commercial communication, navigation and Earth observation services require the unique capabilities that satellites provide.

The consortium of five Lloyd's syndicates, led by Atrium 609, provides a binding authority to Atrium Insurance Agency Limited (AIAL), which manages ASIC.

Steve Cook, Atrium chief executive, said: “The creation of ASIC is an exciting new development for the Group, in line with our strategy of organic growth by attracting the best people in the industry and growing new areas of expertise in the business. While Atrium has underwritten space risks for many years, we feel that, fifty years on from the launch of Sputnik and with the commercial space sector having recently overtaken the government/military space sector in terms of revenue, this is the right time to secure and expand our presence and capabilities in this growing market.”

David Wade added: “I am very pleased to have joined the Atrium team at such an exciting time. We have built a strong team that reflects Atrium's strength as a specialist insurer and we are well placed to capitalise on the growth in the commercial space market.”