Insurer announces new divisions and regional structure

HDI-Gerling Industrial Insurance Company UK, a division of German insurance group HDI-Gerling, has formed two additional business divisions and created a new regional structure.

The insurer has added a major and global risks unit and a UK corporate unit to its existing engineering business division. The major and global risks division will focus on UK and International business with a turnover greater than £350m. It will be headed by David Ball, who joined the firm in 2004 and is already responsible for property underwriting.

The UK corporate division will focus on property and liability business in the corporate sector. Alan Waters has joined Gerling-HDI as director of the UK corporate division from HSBC, where he was head of global placement.

The new UK Corporate division will see the creation of a local management structure in three regional hubs: London and the South-East, Midlands and Wales, and The North and Scotland.

The first of the three hubs, The North and Scotland, will be set up in Manchester this year and will be run by Kevin Armstrong, who has been named regional head of underwriting and business development.

The appointment of the remaining hub leaders will be named in due course, the company said.

“The UK is an important market for HDI-Gerling Industrial Insurance and these organisational changes support our long term strategy to grow our business in the UK,” said Jens Wohlthat, member of the board and responsible for International operations at HDI-Gerling, in a statement.