PRI is looking for new staff to write liability from 1 September
PRI Group, the new professional liability insurer, is looking to recruit 40 staff and is seeking City offices at Minster Court.
Since announcing its intention to float on the alternative investment market (AIM) last week, the new company has been inundated with calls from interested brokers.
One even offered to put £250,000 of his own money into the venture headed up by ex-Markel lead underwriter Andreas Loucaides.
Loucaides, who is taking on the role of PRI's chief executive said the company was on track to raise the capital that it needed, despite the recent volatility on the equity markets.
"We're a new vehicle and we believe we have the expertise to not only have top-line growth, but also to make a bottom-line profit.
"What we're bringing to the financial markets is probably one of the only [insurance] stocks that would allow them [brokers] to have that ability," he said.
PRI will focus on small-to-medium sized businesses in the UK and Europe and has set 1 September 2002 as the day it will start writing new business.
The company, which is setting up at a time when professional liability capacity is at a premium, intends to raise £130m through its flotation on 26 June. Although it will be authorised to start underwriting from that day, it will spend until September setting up the company. The company is also considering starting a box at Lloyd's.
Loucaides said PRI, which will trade primarily through brokers, had no legacy systems, historic liabilities or exposure to the US professional indemnity market, which has battered several insurers.
He conceded that having no liabilities was not a guarantee of success, but stressed that PRI would reserve conservatively and be disciplined and focused about the risks it underwrote.
Chief underwriting director Peter Matson, former lead underwriter of XL Syndicate 990, said that although the UK was becoming a more litigious society, it would not follow the US market.
