Hiscox Q1 2021 Trading Statement

Hiscox Group has published their Q1 2021 Trading Statement relating the period's increases in premium and rates and some claims information.

The full Trading Statement is available on Hiscox's website by clicking here.

The following are some digests:

• Gross Written Premium for the Group up 6.3%;
• Rates up across the portfolio particularly Hiscox London Market's book which saw +13% rate increases;
• Covid-19 estimate of US$475m net of reinsurance recoveries, unchanged;
• Winter Storm Uri estimate of US$47m based upon US$15bn industry loss - will affect Hiscox Re & ILS rather than London Market though;

Hiscox London Market unit which covers Syndicate 33 income grew 9.3% compared to Q1 2020 and increased rates by 13% with "double digit rate growth in 11 out of 17 lines" particularly in US D&O, US general liability and cyber, all of which grew in excess of 20%.

Also, importantly, Hiscox comments that this unit is seeing the attritional loss performance is improving as past course correction continues to take effect and 2021 Q1 has been a good start to the year for this Unit claims' wise with the Ever Given incident not expected to be material.

The Hiscox Re & ILS unit which concentrates upon reinsurance is benefiting from the hard market with rates up 10% and net premium increased by over 35% as it retained more at Group level. Hiscox does comment that it expects rate increases to moderate over the rest of the year, although winter storm Uri is likely to provide further support to pricing. North American catastrophe and retrocession business saw rate increases of 10% and 11% respectively.

Comment
A good reflection of current trading conditions with rate increases and underwriting discipline along with repositioning of various books of business all combining to produce a much healthier top-line situation. Positive news overall.