Burns & Wilcox to expand London, Middle East business

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Burns & Wilcox parent H.W. Kaufman plans to expand its managing general agency operations in London next year, establish an underwriting unit at the Dubai International Financial Centre and set up an insurance vehicle in Lloyd’s of London in 2027, its senior executives said.

The moves are part of its effort to expand its business in Europe and the Middle East, they said in an interview this week at the Insurance Leadership Forum, sponsored by the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers.

“We’re really doubling down on focusing on our core business and leveraging our global capabilities,” said Jodie Kaufman Davis, co-president of H.W. Kaufman.

Kaufman already has two London-based MGAs that write approximately £60 million ($81 million) in premiums, focusing on U.K. commercial business.

In London, the company intends to launch two or three underwriting teams in January, beginning with structured credit and property, and another two or three in the remainder of the year, said Paul Greensmith, who joined the company last year as CEO of international. Previously, he was head of global specialty at American International Group.

“And ideally in 2027, we’d like to have access to our own Lloyd’s paper,” he said. That could be structured as a special-purpose arrangement, a syndicate structured to write quota share business for other syndicates, he said.

Kaufman has a similar setup in the United States with its insurance company Atain, which “demonstrates to the marketplace that we really believe in our underwriting,” Ms. Kaufman Davis said.

Outside of London, Kaufman is also growing in the Middle East. Last year it established a retail broker, Burns & Wilcox UAE, in Dubai, and it plans to launch an underwriting business in January under its R.B. Jones brand in the Dubai International Financial Centre, a special economic zone.

In addition to its international expansion, Burns & Wilcox recently became a preferred wholesaler for Marsh McLennan Agency, Marsh’s small and mid-sized brokerage business.