The Swedish Club has published its half year report to 30th June 2015,which show the claims frequency at a stable level but the results affected by five total losses.
Other highlights include investment return ahead of benchmark, however marginal and free reserves of $180 million, demonstrating a very strong capitalization.
The half year result also showed a deficit of $6.3 million, affected by lower returns from both the technical and non-technical accounts. Underwriting performance registered a combined ratio of 112% but remains slightly below 100% over a five-year rolling period. The result reflects the volatile nature of marine insurance.
The yield of the investment portfolio was 0.3%, affected by negative currency movements and unsupportive market conditions, however, it was slightly ahead of the aggregated benchmark of 0.2%.
The end of the reporting period, June,was affected by adverse interest rate movements, however, there was a partial recovery thereafter, in July.
The Club held 21% of its investment portfolio assets in equities at the end of June 2015.
The overall claims frequency for both P&I and Marine was in line with expectation and on a par with 2014 levels. Underwriting performance was, however, affected by five total losses in the first six months of the year in contrast to one total loss for the full year 2014.
The Club sees no particular trend or pattern in this change of claims activity other than deviation from the expected outcome. In addition, World statistics show that 2014 was an extraordinary benign claims year.
The free reserves stood at $180 million at the end of June, the second highest level for the Club.
The entered tonnage in P&I has been growing according to plan since renewal, now standing in excess of 65 million GT with charterers’ entries included. We see this as a vote of confidence going forward. Volumes in Marine have remained stable during the first six months, basically across all classes.
Recognition is given for the Club as a strong claims leader in Marine, in a market with abundance of risk transfer capacity.
