Dr Christoph Wetzel joins DARAG Germany supervisory board
DARAG Group (“DARAG”), a leading legacy acquirer, announced that Dr Christoph Wetzel is to join the supervisory board of its German insurance carrier DARAG Deutschland AG.Dr Wetzel has worked across the German insurance market for more than 25 years and is currently CEO of fpb AG, a member of the ON Service Group. He previously spent more than six years with HDI Group where he was a board member of HDI Germany with responsibility for its property & casualty business, and CEO of Talanx Germany’s non-life retail business. Dr Wetzel also spent ten years in senior management roles encompassing operations, IT and human resources with Basler Versicherungen Germany.Alexander Roth, Chief Executive Officer of DARAG Europe, said: “Christoph has a stand-out reputation across the German insurance market and we are delighted that he has chosen to join our supervisory board. Alongside his notable consulting experience, his expertise and insight in all areas of insurance gained at senior management level enable him to offer clear and strategic advice, that will be of significant benefit to us and our clients across continental Europe.”Dr Wetzel commented: “The legacy market plays a critical role in supporting insurers to invest and manage their resources efficiently and DARAG Deutschland is particularly renowned for the high-quality legacy solutions it offers, combined with an ambitious outlook. I am looking forward to working with the supervisory board to enable its further success and growth.”
DARAG strengthens its risk management at the European level
DARAG Group (“DARAG” or “the Group”), announced the appointment of Matthias Hahne as Head of Risk Management – Europe, and Dr Martial Hille as Senior Risk Manager (quantitative risk management and regulation). Both will be based in Hamburg, Germany and work closely with Alexander Roth, European CEO of DARAG on Governance, Risk and Compliance to ensure that the governance model and structure of the growing European group are aligned.Matthias Hahne brings over 10 years’ experience as a risk manager, internal auditor and Actuary (DAV). He joins from his most recent position as Head of Actuarial Auditing at Talanx AG, where he was responsible for planning, controlling and monitoring Solvency II, Pillar I and Pillar II related auditareas. Hille has worked in Risk Management and Internal Auditing for over nine years, with his primary focus being on quantitative risk modelling and regulatory requirements, as well as internal and external risk reporting. Prior to joining DARAG, Dr Hille worked as an Internal Auditor (Group Auditing / Actuarial Auditing) at Talanx AG.Tom Booth, Group CEO of DARAG, said: “Having a strong risk management strategy is vital for us as a legacy provider, particularly as regulators rightly increase their focus on ensuring that the market is robust enough to weather potential risks. With the appointments of Matthias and Martial, who both have an excellent understanding of the regulatory landscape, we are further strengthening our risk management capabilities.”Roth said: “Increasing our resources in compliance and risk management enables us to further build upon our strong and ever-developing business model and ensures that DARAG is completely aligned with the requirements of the European regulators. Matthias and Martial are consummate risk management professionals and it is a pleasure to welcome them to the DARAG team.”
DARAG announces Loss Portfolio Agreement with Insr Norway
DARAG Group (“DARAG”), a leading legacy acquirer, announces that following a competitive process, its German insurance carrier DARAG Deutschland AG has signed a Loss Portfolio Transfer (“LPT”) followed by a Portfolio Transfer (“PTA”) with Insr Insurance Group ASA (“Insr”), an insurance group listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange (“OSE”)All of Insr’s remaining insurance business will form part of this proposed transaction. The portfolio consists mainly of motor, property, casualty and workers’ compensation liabilities from both Norwegian and Danish jurisdictions. The deal will see DARAG provide legal finality of all Insr’s insurance liabilities before the end of the 2021, but economic relief as of LPT signing.Tom Booth, CEO of DARAG Group, said: “We are pleased to support Insr as it moves to eliminate its insurance risk. DARAG offers the necessary transaction security and strength of reputation to maintain the utmost quality of service for clients for the remainder of their policies. Our track record of successful transactions makes us the natural choice to assume all operational and financial obligations of Insr’s discontinued portfolio and to continue servicing its needs.”Alexander Roth, Chief Executive Officer of DARAG Europe, said: “This agreement demonstrates clearly again that DARAG is trusted worldwide to provide high quality, reliable legacy solutions for a wide spectrum of clients. We are particularly pleased to have once again achieved a successful outcome for a client in the Nordics region where we continue to expand our footprint.”Niclas Ward, CEO of Insr, commented “From Insr´s point of view, we are pleased to have reached this agreement with DARAG. This secures an orderly exit from the insurance business for Insr, and we are very satisfied to have DARAG as a counterparty, that has a proven track record in the legacy business. We will now focus on a smooth transition of the business to DARAG. In addition, we will review if there is any opportunity for the remains of Insr to continue in one form or another.”The PTA is subject to approval by the Norwegian FSA, Finanstilsynet (“NFSA”) and Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht (“BaFin”) while the LPT comes into immediate effect.
DARAG announces motor portfolio transfer agreement with SADA
• DARAG Group announces a portfolio transfer of Motor Third Party Liability, Motor Own Damage and Motor Legal Protection risks with the company SADA Assurances
• SADA Assurances consolidates its real estate expertiseDARAG Group, a leading legacy acquirer, today announced that its German insurance carrier DARAG Deutschland AG has signed an agreement for a portfolio transfer with French insurer SADA Assurances, a subsidiary wholly owned by the German Group DEVK Versicherungen.DARAG will be providing economic and operational finality for a portfolio of all of SADA’s motor business, which comprises French motor third party liability, motor own damage and motor legal protection risks.This agreement is the first publicly disclosed insurance portfolio transfer to a run-off player on the French market and demonstrates the increasing interest in France for legacy solutions.Tom Booth, Group CEO, said: “DARAG is pleased to partner with SADA to support their recent shift in focus to property business and broaden our own portfolio. We are able to provide SADA with the necessary transaction security and strong reputation to maintain the utmost quality of service, which was particularly important given the long and distinguished history of this business, created initially in 1967.””We are also delighted to transfer our motor insurance policies to the DARAG Group, which will be able to ensure professionalism in the management of contracts and thus maintain the operational excellence provided to policyholders.With this portfolio transfer, we are pursuing, from an operational perspective, our Performance 2024 business plan along with our strategic orientations. As announced to all our broker partners at the end of 2018, SADA Assurances is refocusing on its core expertise: Real Estate. Thereby, we are reaffirming our desire to focus our creativity and investments on the latter in order to meet the needs of real estate professionals and our broker partners,” says André Hess, Chairman of the Management Board of SADA Assurances.Alex Roth, CEO of DARAG Deutschland AG, commented: “Along with our broader European business, our presence and expertise in the French market has been growing significantly in recent years, as our reputation for providing forward thinking solutions to our partners increases. This agreement demonstrates once again the trust that they have in us, as we offer them the reassurance of dealing with a carrier that has an outstanding reputation for legacy solutions.”The transaction is subject to regulatory approval by ACPR and BaFin.
DARAG senior appointments
DARAG Group (“DARAG” or “the Group”), announced several key senior appointments. These hires further broaden out the Group’s capabilities and support its continued progress towards becoming a highly focused, competitive and data driven legacy company with reach across Europe and North America.
The Group is delighted to announce the appointment of Alastair Lauder as Group Chief Actuary. Based in London, Lauder brings valuable and broad actuarial experience and leadership to DARAG. He most recently served as Syndicate Actuary at Arch (formerly Barbican) Managing Agency, where he led the reserving team and oversaw the capital modelling and pricing for Syndicate 1955. Prior to that, Lauder was at Lane Clark & Peacock where he worked on reserving for various London market clients focused on worldwide commercial casualty and medical malpractice. He is a particular advocate of using technology to make actuarial processes as efficient as possible and believes that more focus is needed on data quality within the insurance sector and the actuarial profession.
In addition, DARAG announces the appointment of Ciaran Russell as Senior Actuary in DARAG North America. Based in Bermuda, Russell worked most recently as an actuary at ILS Investment Management in Bermuda where he had direct experience with legacy transactions, having prior to this worked for 7 years at Aspen, performing roles including product and pricing actuary.
To assist with the growing importance of harnessing and streamlining data for the pricing and reserving process as well as to provide a wealth of valuable management information to monitor and improve portfolio performance, DARAG also welcomes Vivek Bhandari as Head of Data. Bhandari was most recently Data Warehouse Consultant at Siemens Financial Services and has deep data warehouse experience.
As a further sign of the investment in data, systems and technology, DARAG announces the appointment of Matt Watson as Group Head of IT. Watson was the former Group Head of IT at Armour Risk Management. He brings both technical and strategic experience to DARAG, including the management and delivery of IT infrastructure projects, cyber security and post-deal integration of systems.
Finally, Alastair Whitfield joins as Group Head of Investments. Whitfield will help manage the Group’s asset portfolios, which are primarily managed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management. He joins DARAG from RBC Wealth Management where he was Head of Fixed Income, UK. Prior to that, Whitfield worked at Chubb Insurance as Portfolio Manager, co-managing the company’s multi-billion dollar international asset base. Whitfield will help ensure DARAG has a structured and well considered approach to asset allocation with a view to optimising risk and capital adjusted yields. The aim is to enhance the Group’s competitiveness and further control the risk of the Group’s growing asset base.
Tom Booth, Group CEO of DARAG, said: “As DARAG continues to expand globally, these senior hires reflect the successful growth and maturity of the Group as well as its ambition and innovation. These highly experienced and skilled staff will lead the continued development of our actuarial, data, IT and investment functions as we move beyond the initial scale up phase of the business.
This new talent will serve to enhance our competitiveness as well as cement our reputation as a wellresourced global legacy player with an enviable blend of industry experience and data led innovation.
DARAG now benefits from a significant balance sheet, ready access to growth capital and the ability to transact across key territories. We expect our full platform build out to be complete by year end, making the Group one of only a few legacy players able to provide the entire suite of solutions across Europe, North America and the UK. DARAG has built up a substantial, well diversified and medium tail portfolio since its recapitalisation three years ago, reinforced by strong risk metrics, underwriting discipline and expert claims management. Our future growth will be built upon those same foundations.
It is a testament to what the business has achieved in recent years, its controlled ambition and outlook in an attractive segment of the insurance market, that we have attracted such high calibre senior personnel to help continue the growth of DARAG into a highly respected and competitive midmarket legacy player.”
DARAG announced reinsurance agreement with US retailer
DARAG Group (“DARAG”), a leading legacy acquirer, announced the conclusion of a transaction with a major US retailer to provide finality to its legacy workers compensation liabilities. The transaction was conducted through one of DARAG North America’s insurance entities.
Tom Booth, CEO of DARAG Group, said: “This transaction demonstrates DARAG’s ambitions in the US market and how our diversified legacy platform can provide a variety of solutions related to insurance liabilities held by Corporates in the U.S. market. We are very pleased to be able to assist one of the major US retailers and offer them a clean and efficient exit from their legacy workers compensation liabilities which allowed them to free up a significant amount of trapped capital.
It is more important than ever for companies to focus on their core business and improve operational efficiency. We believe there will be an increase in such transactions and our team will work closely with our clients to provide effective and advantageous solutions.”
DARAG announces the sale of non-legacy Italian business to NOBIS
DARAG Group (“DARAG” or “the Group”), a leading legacy acquirer, announced that it has reached an agreement with NOBIS Compagnia di Assicurazioni (“NOBIS”) for the sale of the Going Concern business from DARAG Italia S.p.A (“DARAG Italia”). The transaction is subject to regulatory approval.
The sale of the active underwriting business will streamline DARAG’s operations and enable the Group to focus exclusively on providing high quality and cost-effective legacy solutions. The relevant policies, distribution agreements and personnel dedicated to the active portfolio in Italy will be transferred to NOBIS upon completion of the transaction. DARAG intends to retain operations in Italy through the establishment of an Italian branch of DARAG’s German risk carrier, DARAG Deutsche Versicherungs- und Rückversicherungs-AG. The branch, comprised of a number of existing DARAG Italia staff, will manage the existing Italian book in run-off and potential future legacy portfolios in the region.
DARAG Italia was formed in 2016 following the Group’s acquisition of ERGO Assicurazioni S.p.A. The majority of DARAG Italia’s portfolio consists of motor risks such as motor third party liability, land vehicle hulls and marine third-party liability, and accident risks.
Tom Booth, CEO of DARAG Group, said: “The sale of our active Italian business is an illustration of our singular focus on legacy and our commitment to enhancing DARAG’s operational efficiency. As one of the leading legacy players, with a growing capital base, DARAG continues to expand its global footprint. DARAG will carry on providing a full suite of market leading legacy solutions to the Italian market through its local branch; part of its general strategy to offer bespoke localised solutions, backed with resident expertise.”
“NOBIS is a well-regarded and secured insurance provider in Italy. It has been a pleasure to work with their professional team and we are confident that our clients will continue to receive high-quality support and services.”
DARAG announces transfer of reinsurance business with Axeria Re
DARAG, a leading legacy acquirer, today announced the conclusion of the transfer of reinsurance business with the Maltese reinsurer Axeria Re – part of the April Group – and the original insurer located in France. The transfer of reinsurance business delivers economic, operational and legal effect to Axeria Re.
The transaction will be conducted through DARAG Malta Insurance and Reinsurance PCC Limited. Guy Carpenter & Company, S.A.S., the French operation of Guy Carpenter, served as sell-side advisors.
Based in Malta, Axeria Re designed reinsurance and risk programmes and is a subsidiary of April Group since 2008. The original cedant is a French insurer specialised in property & casualty, motor fleets and directors & officers liability insurance.
Tom Booth, CEO of DARAG Group, said: “Axeria Re was looking to achieve finality for their exposures while maintaining the solemn promise to their reinsureds. We were able to offer a clean, efficient and advantageous exit for Axeria Re while guaranteeing the highest level of service to their cedants. It was a pleasure to work with the resolutely professional team of Axeria Re and the original cedant.”
“DARAG continues to strengthen our European operations and this transfer of reinsurance business has further demonstrated how our diversified capital relief instruments can support insurers’ and reinsurers’ strategic priorities. We are very pleased to be able to assist Axeria Re, and we look forward to announcing further deals in the near future.”
DARAG hires Goss as new Head of Claims from TMK
Legacy acquirer DARAG has announced the appointment of Elliot Goss as Group Head of Claims.
With over 17 years of re/insurance experience, Goss has specialised in long tail classes such as International Casualty.
He most recently served as Head of Casualty and Specialty Claims at Tokio Marine Kiln, where he led the team in handling large and complex losses as well as portfolio management since 2018.
Prior to that Goss was at Ark Syndicate Management where he joined in 2012 as Senior Claims Adjuster and progressed to Head of Delegated and US casualty claims. He began his insurance career as claims consultant at Tawa Management Limited in 2003. Goss, a Chartered Insurer, gained his FCII in 2016.
Tom Booth, CEO of DARAG, said: “For a legacy provider, maintaining an expert, efficient, agile and proactive claims function is key. We are entrusted with maintaining the promise of efficient and speedy claims handling throughout the duration of policies to our partners’ insureds.”
He continued: “As DARAG continues to expand globally, we are therefore investing in growing our scalable and specialist claims team to serve all local markets. With his international expertise in multiple lines of business, Elliott will be a valuable addition to the DARAG team. We are very pleased to have Elliott joining us and we look forward to welcoming him in due course.”
Goss will be based in London and will join the company on 17th August.
DARAG announces reinsurance agreement with Multi-national Insurance Company
DARAG, a leading legacy acquirer, today announces the conclusion of a loss portfolio transfer between DARAG Insurance Guernsey Limited (“DIGL”) and a Multi-National Insurance Company with subject reserves in excess of $100 million. DIGL is providing economic and operational finality for the counter-party’s US General Liability book of business. TigerRisk served as advisors to both parties in concluding the agreement.
Tom Booth, CEO of DARAG, said: “We continue to expand our geographical footprint, illustrated by the completion of this sizeable US transaction underwritten by DIGL. The portfolio will be managed through service agreements between DIGL and our SOBC DARAG operations in the US. I am delighted to be able to announce our continued growth and success in providing attractive legacy solutions to the market.”