Oak Global launches portfolio underwriting unit at Lloyd’s

Oak Global has secured Lloyd’s approval to launch a dedicated portfolio underwriting business, targeting distribution partners with capacity across property, specialty, credit and casualty risks.

The new unit, Oak Partnerships, will underwrite through Oak Syndicate 1440, with risks set to incept from 1 January 2027.

Cathal Carr, founder, chief executive and group chief underwriting officer at Oak Global, said the launch would extend the company’s offering to a new group of underwriting partners.

“Oak Partnerships is an exciting expansion of Oak Global’s offering to the market,” he said.

The business will offer partners access to Lloyd’s capacity through a single underwriting relationship, alongside portfolio analysis, benchmarking and risk insights generated using Oak Global’s proprietary technology platform and industry dataset.

Carr said the new unit would also diversify the group’s offering for capital providers by introducing a lower-volatility underwriting strategy that complements its existing reinsurance and retrocession portfolios.

Underwriting leadership

As part of the launch, Elisabeth Groehe has joined Oak Global as chief underwriting officer of Oak Partnerships, bringing more than a decade of underwriting leadership experience in the portfolio insurance market.

She will also become joint active underwriter of Syndicate 1440, alongside Roland Morse, chief underwriting officer at Oak Enterprise.

Groehe said improvements in the quality and availability of granular risk data had created an opportunity to apply data intelligence and underwriting expertise to portfolio insurance.

“With the continued improvements in quality and availability of granular risk data, now is the right time for Oak Partnerships to apply Oak Global’s proven combination of data intelligence and first-rate underwriting talent to the portfolio insurance link in value chain,” she said.