Growth for the Swedish Club

The Swedish Club announced to its board today a significant increase in financial strength, with a positive underwriting outcome and investment earnings leading to a surplus of $17 million overall - a testament to the strategy of diversification and focused business development. This positive underwriting outcome resulted in a combined ratio of 93.5% with free reserves increasing to a record level of $168 million.

The year also saw an increase of 6% in Owners P&I entries, which now total 37 million GT. The Swedish Club’s total entry including Charterers Liability passed the 55 million GT mark, an overall rise of 8% compared with the previous twelve months.

This was coupled with notable growth in the Hull/Machinery insurance sector, with a continuing focus across the marine segment as a whole and diversification into the offshore sector during the second half of the year. This resulted in entries in the Marine business sector increasing from 1,500 to 2,000.

Lars Rhodin, Managing Director of The Swedish Club said, “The club took two major strategic decisions in 2013: to further reinforce its commitment to the Norwegian market and to take action to accelerate the uptake of Maritime Resource Management (MRM), which makes a significant contribution to the global drive to reduce large navigational claims arising from shortcomings in human behavior.

“We believe in the inherent value of diversification and in taking firm action on loss prevention, to address fundamental cause,” Rhodin added. “The club maintains its steady course and we are looking forward with confidence to further controlled growth in the year ahead. Our aim is to be the shipowner’s preferred choice on grounds of cost-effective service and added value. This requires consistency in our approach to risk, pricing, service and, in particular, claims response,” he concluded.