By Satish Kanady
DOHA: Global insurance market leader Lloyd’s has strategically positioned Qatari market in its long-term plan Vision 2025. The insurance major, which is set to open its office in Dubai, yesterday announced ‘Qatar is a high growth market’ for it.
Talking to The Peninsula on the sidelines of Multaqa Qatar Forum, Inga Beale (pictured), Chief Executive Officer, Lloyd’s of London said the Lloyd’s currently writes annual premium of around $70m in Qatar, mainly across the marine, energy and property classes.
It also covers other classes of business such as construction, political risk, trade credit, causality, professional risks, aviation and contingency.
With a projected 18 percent growth in the non-life sector, Qatar is a high growth market for us. Transportation projects such as airports, sea ports, trams, metro and rail system are major drivers of this investment, Inga said.
The relationship between Qatar and Lloyd’s got strengthened recently. In June last year, Qatar Insurance Company, the largest insurance company in the region, bought Antares Holdings Limited, a specialist insurance and reinsurance group operating in the Lloyd’s market. Soon, Qatar Re, the reinsurance arm of QIC announced it would provide capital support to Pioneer Underwriting’s Lloyd’s syndicate through a strategic quota share arrangement.
Inga said economic growth picture across the wider Gulf region is so impressive. A key part of this is the huge oil and gas sector. Around 50 percent of the world’s crude oil and natural gas is located right here in this region. It is estimated that $73bn of natural gas developments are currently in the tendering process.
“The level of investment in wider infrastructure are phenomenal, with over $1 trillion of contracts estimated as having been awarded in the Gulf in the last 10 years, and an estimated whopping $2 trillion more anticipated over the next 10 years”.
Inga who stressed the need for developing innovative, specialised products for Qatari market said the region as a whole is facing complex and evolving risks which require innovative, flexible solutions. “Lloyd’s is renowned for this. This is what we do and our market offers highly specialist products to cover and mitigate highly complex risks, which are not available elsewhere”.
Renewable energy and cyber attacks are two big emerging issues that this region is facing and Lloyd’s can be part of actively managing them.
In Qatar, Qatar Solar Technologies has entered into an agreement with Qatar Rail to explore the possibility of installing solar power on the country’s rail network. If viable, up to 80 megawatts of solar technology could be installed into Qatar’s multi-billion dollar railway development.
Lloyd’s has a great depth of underwriting expertise which can support the risk management of high-value, complex energy projects like these, which require a tailored approach based on specialist knowledge of the renewable energy sector, she said.
Cyber risks are currently affecting the world at an increasing rate. With the strong growth of the economy in Qatar and those across the region more widely, the risk of cyber-attack is unfortunately growing in Qatar as well. One of the oil companies in the region suffered an estimated loss of $15m due to cyber attack. The very same virus was suspected to have been used in a cyber attack on a company in Qatar.
There have also been high-profile attacks on banks across the region, including the theft of $45m over two months by a gang of cyber criminals in attacks on some banks in the region.
The Peninsula
