Australian-based Calliden will launch industrial special risk and cover and public liability products for middle market risks on 30 June.
As revealed by Insurance Business in March, the insurer, which recently transitioned to a managing general agency model, already provides a business package product for SMEs. The newest product will target larger businesses.
Calliden CEO Nick Kirk revealed the launch date at the AGM on Friday. “Middle market offering, backed by Great Lakes, will be accepting new business from 30 June”, he said. “This new product offering designed for customers who are larger than those who are catered for by our Business Pack products. The backing of Great Lakes enables us to create this offering in an area of the market which we would not previously had a risk appetite for as an insurer.”
Hinting at plans to launch a new product offering later this year, Kirk added: “We also aim to launch one more new product set this year in a new market sector for Calliden backed by a new carrier for Calliden.”
Kirk conceded that the insurer’s catastrophe claims exceeded Calliden’s Q1 allowance in 2013. It estimated incurred losses of $2.4m from ex-tropical cyclone Oswald and $0.3m to $0.5m from the bushfires in Tasmania and NSW. Kirk reassured AGM attendees that it is “comfortably within [its] annual allowance”.
“While thankfully nothing like the experience of 2011, ex-top cyclone Oswald and the two bushfires in Tasmania and NSW made it a lively start to 2013,” he said.
“In February we advised market that estimated cost to Calliden net of its proportional reinsurance for these claims was between $2m to $3m. As of today, our reserves for those claims stand at $2.7m including an allowance for incurred but not yet reported claims,” Kirk said.
“While that number is greater than our first half allowance for natural catastrophes, it is well within the $4.5m we allow on annual basis.”
The claims costs were “significantly lower” than what they were in previous years, he added.
