Omega Insurance Holdings Omega Insurance Holdings  
 
   
     

Overview


Corporate Overview
Omega Underwriting Agents & Syndicate 958
Omega Specialty Insurance Company
Omega US Insurance
Omega Europe

Omega Insurance Holdings

Omega Speciality Insurance Company

Omega Specialty is a directly held and wholly owned subsidiary of Omega Insurance Holdings Limited and received its licence from the Bermuda Monetary Authority in February 2006 as a Class 3 insurer. It was re-classified as a Class 3B insurer effective 1 January 2009. Omega Specialty was capitalised at $172 million and is rated A- (Excellent) by A.M. Best.

During 2008, Omega Specialty wrote gross premiums of US$252.4 million (2007: US$233.4 million). This was comprised predominantly of:

  • reinsurance of Omega Dedicated through which Omega Specialty assumed the risk of the majority of the share of Syndicate 958’s capacity owned by the Group;
  • quota share reinsurances of 20% of Syndicate 958’s gross whole account;
  • a book of third party reinsurance;
  • quota share reinsurance of 50% of the new Omega US net whole account.

Looking ahead to 2009, the reinsurance of the Syndicate and Group subsidiaries have been renewed.

In 2008, 80% of Omega Specialty’s premium income of US$252.4 million was sourced from Syndicate 958. This means that Omega Specialty has a portfolio with a broader diversity and greater inherent balance and consistency of profitability than would be normal in the Bermudian reinsurance market that is still dominated by companies with a property catastrophe focus. As Omega Specialty’s third party catastrophe book grows, we have sought to maintain a balance in the business mix, by the reinsurance of part of the growing Omega US book, with its mix of property and liability and wide geographic footprint. By maintaining this balance Omega Specialty expects to continue Syndicate 958’s historic low result volatility compared to its peer group. This in itself enables Omega Specialty to write a greater premium to capital ratio than its less diversified peers.