Chief executive Gunter Saacke, chief underwriting officer Will Schuerch, and 10 further underwriters have left the reinsurance company’s Zurich operation.
It has been reported that Saake and Schuerch left the Lloyd's reinsurer in May, due to restraints on independence and a reinsurance book which has been lower than its insurance segment since 2010.
Their resignations, along with ten underwriters that included heads of agriculture, engineering and credit and surety, have raised concerns that the insurer cannot retain business written by these divisions.
After the exodus, analysts at Peel Hunt replaced the ‘buy’ rating with ‘hold’, raising its combined operating ratio forecast by 1 percent for 2012 and 2 percent for the following year. Peel Hunt also lowered gross written premium expectations for 2013 and 2014 by £50 million, on the assumption that it will be difficult to hold on to all business written by those underwriters that have left.
