Sep 22, 2020
Beazley PLC Trading Statement - update on the Group's Covid estimate and trading conditions.


Beazley released to the Stock Exchange this morning a half-year Trading Statement which updated on the Group's Covid estimate and trading conditions.
The full announcement is available here.
Extracts:
Claims update
"We
announced in April our estimate of the cost of Covid-19 claims for our
first party business (contingency, accident and health, marine, property
and reinsurance) to be around US$170m net of reinsurance.
In
determining this figure, we made a number of assumptions including that
events would resume in September this year which would lead to a
normalisation in the levels of contingency claims. Given the evolving
status of Covid-19 we no longer expect this to be the case.
As
our book of business is heavily weighted to the US and UK, with the
largest segment being conferences, our clients are still largely unable
to operate as restrictions on holding events persist. Conferences that
were postponed earlier in the year are now being cancelled as are ones
due to take place in the final quarter of this year which means our loss
estimates have increased. In addition, we anticipate further claims
based on our exposure for events in 2021.
The combination of all
these factors means that our total estimate for first party Covid-19
claims has moved from US$170m to US$340m net of reinsurance, with almost
of all of the increase caused by further event cancellation losses.
This revised figure assumes a resumption to some form of normality in
the second half of 2021. Were this not to be the case, we estimate that
we would have another US$50m of further claims net of reinsurance.
We have also considered the recent FCA judgement on business
interruption wording and do not expect this outcome to have a material
impact on Beazley."
Business update
"We
continue to see improving growth prospects across our portfolios of
business. This is primarily driven by continuing rate improvements, with
an overall rate change of 13% at the end of August. We estimate that
the overall growth for 2020 will be in the mid-teens.
Looking
towards next year we expect these rate improvements to continue, and are
again planning for double digit growth in 2021. We have contemplated
this growth within our capital planning and, following the equity raise
and LOC extension earlier this year, are able to take full advantage of
the opportunity that lies ahead of us.
Investments returned
US$136m (or 2.2%) up to the end of August. Whilst we have benefited from
recent improvements in investment markets, we remain relatively
cautious on taking investment risk given the continued uncertainty
surrounding the global economy.
We will give further updates in our Q3 trading statement on 6th November."
Comment The increase in Covid estimates stems from the extended lockdown as conferences and events that were postponed earlier in the year are now being cancelled with others due to take place in the final quarter of this year. Beazley added that it does not expect the outcome of the recent FCA judgement on business interruption wordings to have a material impact.
The overall rate change of 13% so far is a good sign which is driving the mid-teens growth in 2020 premiums and a planned 21.5% growth in capacity on Syndicate 623 for 2021.