Zurich inks five-year £105m deal with specialist underwriter

Zurich has signed a new five-year agreement with agricultural and farm insurance specialist underwriter AIUA.

The long-term deal with AIUA, which forms part of The Ardonagh Group, is worth £105m of gross written premium (GWP) over the five-year term, effective immediately.

Zurich will provide sole underwriting capacity to the North Yorkshire-based underwriter under the agreement, covering its portfolio of farm combined and agriculture motor insurances.

David Martin, Zurich’s head of retail, said: “This deal further strengthens our strategic relationship with Ardonagh and is consistent with our retail strategy.

”We are continuing to expand and diversify our retail business by building long-term capacity agreements with specialist, high performing underwriters.

“AIUA [has] a long established expertise in the rural insurance market and we are delighted to be working with them.”

The deal follows a £700m agreement that Zurich announced with motor specialist KGM earlier this month.

Strategic partnership 

Zurich takes over from previous capacity provided by Axa.

Geo Underwriting is the MGA division of The Ardonagh Group. 

Derek Coles, Geo Underwriting’s chief executive, said: “I am delighted to further develop and strengthen our strategic partnership with Zurich, building not only on our successful relationship in agriculture - with The Rural Insurance Group - but elsewhere across the Geo ‘house of brands’.

“Both Geo and Zurich are committed to the specialist agriculture insurance sector, seeing this as a real opportunity for growth, and I’m delighted [it has] chosen to back our technical knowledge and expertise.”