INTERVIEW: LEE ELLIS, RAMON INTERNATIONAL
Broker Ramon recognises Ian’s global reach
As Ramon International expands its business, it is primed for the fallout of Hurricane Ian on market capacity and prices, says the firm’s Lee Ellis.
Hurricane Ian may have made landfall in the US but the repercussions are being felt globally, with knock-on effects predicted for the Asia-Pacific market around capacity and price rises, according to Lee Ellis, board member and head of International at Ramon International.
“We are all being impacted by global catastrophes,” he told SIRC Today.
“We’ve had regional catastrophe losses this year, though in truth Asia has been reasonably benign. All the talk currently is regarding Hurricane Ian in the US, which is going to cause shortages of capacity and price increases across that market, which in turn will have a knock-on effect to the Asian market,” he said.
“We are part of a global market and there’s nothing we can do to change that.”
As a very diverse region, ranging from North Asia down to Australasia, the market circumstances across Asia-Pacific are “very different”, he said.
As a result of this diversity, Ellis has seen new entrants and startups target Asia-Pacific.
He has also seen new capacities coming into the market but, he said: “I still think it’s going to be a tough renewal at 1/1, particularly when we look at the treaty market.
“Our intention has been to expand our international offering.”
Lee Ellis, Ramon International
“It’s going to be about quality of advice and clients working with individuals that have traded in a hard market, who understand hard market conditions. So rather than a one-size-fits-all solution, it’s going to be down to the quality of the individuals that are broking the accounts, supported by the right analytics and the right partners in those areas.”
Established in 1980, Ramon International is now one of the oldest independent Lloyd’s brokers, Ellis explained. The company is part of the Kastor Group, which is in turn owned by Zim Integrated Shipping.
“Until three or four years ago, we were very much focused in the marine sector of the market. But our intention has been to expand our international offering as a business and strengthen our capabilities in other lines of business. In the past 18 months we’ve established in Miami for the Latin American market, we’ve established in South Africa and we have recently purchased CKI in Korea, which we’ve rebranded to RKL for Ramon Korea Limited.”
As well as the growth of Ramon, Ellis is closely monitoring other market machinations.
“We’re seeing growth in the mega brokers, there’s been a couple of new entrants trying to break into that mega broker arena, which is interesting and concerning at the same time.
“As a whole, it’s great for the corporate business-to-business buyer that is looking solely at that and wants real alternatives outside of the big two. It also detracts those brokers from focusing on their traditional mid-market segment and that’s squarely where we are targeting.”
He said that all the M&A activity is undoubtedly creating opportunity. “We’re picking up great resources that are disgruntled or displaced from the mergers that are going on, which is without question going to support our growth aspirations.”
“There will be pressure upon cedants to increase retention.”
Old values
In such a competitive market segment, Ramon’s strategy is to use traditional broking values to gain the edge.
“It’s quite obvious to see what the market needs and wants: that is service delivery and bespoke tailored solutions, rather than a one-size-fits-all that they may get from larger broking houses that align better to soft market conditions.”
He reiterated that with the hard market conditions and a potential shortage of capacity, the quality and skill of the people at the broker is significant, and he emphasised the importance of the quality of partners and Ramon’s relationships with reinsurers.
“It’s about being able to differentiate your client out of a hundred other clients and ensuring theirs is a submission that stands out from the crowd. Reinsurers are not going to be renewing every programme in the same way they did last year. There will be changes, there will be reductions in capacity.
“Very rarely will you see increases in capacity coming from most of the major reinsurers this year,” he said.
This fall in available capacity is expected to take in a broad spectrum of the market, although within this picture, Ellis added that it is likely to be more on the property and catastrophe side of things, while specialty lines will be less affected.
“That said, we expect proportional treaties, or smaller treaties that go across multiple segments, to come under a lot of pressure.
“There will be pressure upon cedants to increase retention and to seriously look at the amount of vertical capacity they buy from a catastrophe perspective,” he concluded.
Lee Ellis is a board member and head of International of Ramon International. He can be contacted at: lee.ellis@ramon.co.uk
Main image: Shutterstock / greenbutterfly
