Mereo units to write $450M in 2025: Duperreault

MONTE CARLO, Monaco — Mereo Insurance and its related insurance-linked securities funds are projected to write about $450 million in premiums this year across a wide range of reinsurance business, according to Executive Chairman Brian Duperreault.

The Bermuda-based units, which are managed by recently launched Cedar Trace, comprise Mereo, a permanent reinsurer, and various ILS funds. The lead investor is Susquehanna Private Equity Investments.

Cedar Trace raised about $500 million for Mereo and more than $600 million for the ILS funds, Mr. Duperreault said during an interview Monday at the Rendez-Vous de Septembre reinsurance meeting.

The group will write about $300 million through Mereo and $150 million through the ILS funds, he said.

“Right now, we’re doing 25 lines of business that run the gamut from undersea cables to property cat,” he said. In addition, Mereo writes financial lines, various casualty lines and will soon write surety business.

ILS investors are attracted to lower catastrophe layers, where the rate on line is higher, he said.

“Higher rate-on-line is in the ILS, lower rate-on-line is in the reinsurance company,” Mr. Duperreault said.

The softening property catastrophe market was not a deterrent to launching the business, he said.

“It wasn’t a hard-market strategy,” Mr. Duperreault said. “The market is good enough for us to get our diversification, that’s all I worry about.”

The launch marks another stop in his long career in insurance and reinsurance, which included heading American International Group, Hamilton Insurance, Marsh McLennan and Ace.

“The guys younger than me, they just go from company to company. When you get to my age, then you have to talk about retirement. I feel like I’m just going on the next great adventure,” Mr. Duperreault said.

Mereo has about 30 employees, including David Croom Johnson, CEO and chief underwriting officer, who previously was CEO of AEGIS London.