The board of R&Q Insurance Holdings is reviewing strategic options to separate its program management and legacy insurance businesses, less than a week after naming a non-executive chair and a new group chief executive.
“R&Q’s program management business, Accredited, has grown significantly over the past three years, achieving record gross written premium and fee income (excluding minority stakes in MGAs) of US$1.8 billion and US$80 million, respectively, in 2022,” noted R&Q in its announcement. “It is now one of the largest program managers globally.
“Accredited relies on an ‘A’ credit rating to conduct business and historically relied on the financial strength of the broader group to obtain its credit rating. However, given Accredited’s current size and scale, R&Q believes it is in the best interests of R&Q’s shareholders for Accredited to stand on its own.”
The non-life global specialty insurance company expects the separation to similarly set Accredited and R&Q’s legacy insurance business on more favourable footing to deliver profitable growth. R&Q is also forecasting it will receive consents for a corresponding legal reorganisation in the second quarter.
Former executive chair and now CEO William Spiegel said the planned split is aimed at ensuring that both businesses have the strongest foundations from which to grow.
Meanwhile, based on preliminary and unaudited figures, R&Q is anticipating a pre-tax operating loss of US$30-40 million for the financial year ended December 31, 2022. Broken down, US$55-60 million in pre-tax operating profit is slated to come from program management; US$55-60 million in pre-tax operating loss from legacy insurance; and an approximately US$35 million loss from corporate and other.
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