Ageas Re grows book at Jan 1, accelerates specialty lines development amid softening cat market

Ageas Re, the reinsurance arm of international insurance group Ageas, grew its book at the January 1st, 2025, renewals, securing €34 million of profitable new business as the firm accelerated its strategy to develop its specialty lines offering in anticipation of a softening catastrophe market.

The reinsurer notes that it completed its 1.1 2025 renewals amid increased supply in an adequately priced market which outpaced demand, ultimately leading to a renewal landscape that showed moderate softening in October, accelerating in November and late December.

“The unexpected pace of rate softening towards the end of the renewal period prompted Ageas Re to actively manage for a softening cycle, to maintain strong expected capital returns and anticipated profits,” says the firm.

On January 1st, Ageas Re’s premium volume up for renewal was €113 million, of which €3 million was cancelled due to pricing deterioration or restructuring.

At the same time, the firm secured €34 million of profitable new business, which combined with the €110 million in renewed premium, and a €1 million variation in existing premium, saw Ageas Re’s expected premium income rise to €145 million at 1.1 2025, reflecting organic growth of 29%.

Together with the company’s in-force book from business underwritten in 2024, Ageas Re had €174 million of in-force business as at January 1st, 2025. Further, if you include the third-party business accepted from joint ventures, €70 million at the 1.1 renewals, total Third-Party Production at 1.1 2025 stands at €215 million, which takes the total third-party in-force book to €252 million.

A look at the composition of the overall portfolio reveals a healthy balance between property and casualty, as well as growth in agriculture and credit & bond.

Excluding joint ventures, year-on-year, the reinsurer’s property catastrophe book grew from €44 million to €50 million, as the casualty book grew from €59 million to €63 million. Property non-cat increased from €4 million to €9 million, while the agriculture book grew from €0.9 million to €5 million, and credit & bond swelled from €2.2 million to €16 million. The only business line to shrink was terrorism, from €3 million to €2 million.

Within property, notably the cat space, Ageas Re confirms that 2024 was challenging, which led to some contracts not being renewed. Despite this, the firm did still grow its property cat account by around 10% at 1.1 2025 and largely maintained the profitability of the strong 2024 book. Growth of more than 100% in non-cat is consistent with its strategy.

Ageas Re began writing a casualty book focused on UK Motor in 2024, and at the Jan 1 renewals, maintained its
production in Motor UK amid slight rate reductions and important exposure change following the change in the Ogden rate late in the year.

In specialty, Ageas Re grew its book in line with the business plan, from €5.5 million in premiums 2024 to €22.7 million.

“In anticipation of a softening (CAT) market, Ageas Re accelerated its strategy to develop underwriting, pricing and tooling for specialty lines during 2024, adding Agriculture and Credit & Bond to its offering,” explains the firm.

On the renewed book, the company says that it kept margins fairly stable despite an overall risk-adjusted rate change of -2.7%.

“This was achieved by shifting to better remunerated programmes and layers and entering programmes with increasing rates post loss,” notes Ageas Re.

It’s also worth highlighting that the reinsurer had “slightly more” capacity available at the Jan renewals, but decided not to deploy amid its “strict bottom-line focus” and “underwriting discipline.”

“I would like to thank the team for their tremendous efforts, another good outcome of the renewals and especially for the strong underwriting discipline and active cycle management they demonstrated during this renewal. Growing the book by 30% whilst maintaining profitability and improving diversification deserves a big compliment,” said Joachim Racz, CEO of Ageas Re.

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