Virtual insurer Fusion will be selective in choosing new broker clients, as its predicted growth will see it write £50m of gross premiums in its first full financial year.
The Lloyd's cover holder and service company generated £20.4m of premium income in the first six months of the year. This is about two thirds of parent group SVB's distribution premium income.
SVB chief executive Rupert Villers predicted the group's distribution businesses would pull in £90m in premiums by year end and set a target of £125m for next year.
If Fusion keeps pace with these expectations, it could be generating £50m of gross written premium by the end of this year and £83m by the end of 2003.
It is the fastest growing of SVB's three service companies, which together produced gross written premium income of £33m in the first six months of the year.
Fusion is able to write business and issue documentation on behalf of Lloyd's, as its risk is carried by an SVB-managed syndicate. Fusion has just over 200 provincial broker clients, serviced through five offices in Glasgow, Birmingham, Leeds, Bristol and London.
Managing director Kevin Pallett said Fusion's growth would come without a major expansion in the number of its broker clients, but by growing business volumes through existing clients.
He said Fusion would pick new brokers on the way they conducted their business rather than by volume or type of risk.
"We get stacks of applications from brokers that would like to deal with us," he said. "We will talk to them about how they like to do business and see if we've got a match.
"We don't demand that they do certain volumes of business.
"We are looking to get what's good quality and makes an underwriting profit.
"We would rather write a well-managed plastics risk rather than a poorly-managed office block."
Industrial plastics clients are generally seen as riskier than run of the mill office cover.
