State owned reinsurer General Insurance Corporation Re has abandoned its expedition to buy a Lloyd’s of London syndicate member and instead eyeing to apply for membership of the syndicate.
Experts believe that this will ruin the designated national reinsurer position in about 50 countries for a long time as it will take 18 months to get a licence and years to build a business.
“We are planning to apply for a licence to be part of the syndicate,” said AK Roy, chairman and managing director of GIC Re. “We have called off our plans to buy a membership, which we pursued for over a year.” Lloyd’s of London is an insurance market in London’s primary financial district the City of London.
GIC Re came very close to entering the Lloyd’s of London market by acquiring Antares, owned by Lightyear Capital, but lost out to Qatar Insurance Company. Last year, it had acquired Johannesburg based Saxum Re to expand its global footprint. It has a joint venture reinsurance company in Bhutan.
One of the reasons for expanding globally is the shrinking of domestic business. Premium on insurance products is not adequately priced, leading to a decline in income from Indian business.
