London Club achieves premium income targets

THE London P&I Club achieved its premium income targets during the renewal negotiations completed on February 20 this year. It now has a total fleet entry of more than 30 million gross tons, covering all categories of membership. Major new entries in the Club included fourteen bulk carriers operated by Petros Pappas' Sentinel Marine Services in Greece. Also, existing members - including the Schuldt Group, V Ships, Cosco Hong Kong, and MISC - entered additional vessels with the Club. As in previous years, the Club declined to insure a significant amount of tonnage which did not meet its stringent quality requirements. The London Club has traditionally pursued a policy of selective, quality expansion and strategic investment. For the period between February 1997 and February 2001, it enjoyed the best average investment return of all clubs in the International Group of P&I Clubs. In the latest issue of its London Club News, however, the Club notes that the well-publicised reduction in the performance of investment markets throughout the world was a major factor in all clubs seeking significant increases in premium income this year. And it warns that the financial climate "remains uncertain for the foreseeable future, and that investment returns are unlikely to reach anything like the buoyant levels that have been achieved in recent years".