Underwriting chief Ash Bathia confident QBE can achieve GWP target by 2015
QBE Europe’s Ash Bathia believes a hard market will help QBE to expand his property casualty and motor division from $2.7bn to $5bn gross written premiums by 2015.
Speaking exclusively in an Insurance Times interview, underwriting division chief Ash Bathia said QBE’s base of 17 offices across Europe, underwriting arm under the Lloyd’s franchise in Canada and strong brand in Asian emerging markets and Latin America, would help achieve the target.
Speaking on the market turn, Bathia said: “For me, it is a question of when the market is going to turn, it is not a question of if.
“If you look back at the last hard market, which was back in 2001 and 2002, the rates probably went up about 50%. Now I’m not saying the correction that phenomenal this time around, but there will be a big correction in the market. If the market’s go up by 20% we’ve already added $500 - $600m dollars to the business straight away.”
He added: “So if you look at our ambition to get to $5bn, it’s not just premised on pure, pure, pure new business growth, it’s premised on a combination of new business growth, new territories, new products but also the market cycle.”
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