Asta, the leading third-party managing agent at Lloyd’s, is to provide its MGA platform and comprehensive operational services to the newly-formed underwriting agency BPBUW Management (BPBUW), and its first MGA client, the specialist equine insurer David Ashby Underwriting (DAU).
Launched this month, BPBUW builds-out specialist niche MGA subsidiaries, and has an active pipeline of high-quality agencies. DAU is its first, following DAU’s buy-out of a bloodstock and equestrian book of business from MS Amlin.
Asta has an equity interest in BPBUW and will provide the new businesses with a range of services including the oversight of underwriting and delegated authority as well as compliance and risk management.
Asta acts as an independent partner that provides a cost-effective and flexible platform for clients’ development and growth. With Asta’s support, BPBUW can provide DAU with comprehensive services and solutions which would be otherwise uneconomical against its projected £25 million premium income for 2020. In this way, Asta provides the antidote to scale in the potentially expensive Lloyd’s operating environment.
BPBUW chairman, Jonathan Palmer-Brown, said: “Asta is integral to our operating model. With its services, knowledge, and market connections behind us, we can provide entrepreneurial MGAs with the complete spectrum of services and systems necessary to establish and grow a successful, profitable underwriting business.”
Keith Nevett, Asta’s head of business development, and who will sit on the board of BPBUW, added: “We’re delighted to support BPBUW and its existing and future MGAs. We deliver the high-quality services the market demands, from compliance to back-office administration, at a fraction of the cost of establishing in-house infrastructure. These services will help smaller underwriting units, whether syndicates-in-a-box, MGAs, SPAs or full syndicates, to operate more cost-efficiently in the market.”
For further information, please contact:
Haggie Partners
Damian Beeley
Tel: +44 (0)207 562 4444
Damian.Beeley@haggie.co.uk
Notes for editors
About Asta
Asta Managing Agency Ltd is the leading third party managing agent at Lloyd’s and is responsible for 10 syndicates and two SPAs with capacity under management in 2019 of more than £1.4bn:
MGAs
Asta Underwriting Management Limited (AUML) brings the skills, experience and capabilities of the leading third party managing agency at Lloyd’s to the MGA market.
MGAs under management:
BPB Underwriting Management Ltd (BPB)
BPB Underwriting Management Ltd, is a specialist MGA management agency, focused on nurturing specialist niche MGA businesses. Each underwriting business that joins will be of the highest quality, with a first-class track record of profitability and strong market following. Individual MGA underwriting leadership teams will hold a meaningful equity stake in their own MGA business. BPB has a strong executive led by Chairman Jonathan Palmer-Brown, CEO John Holm, COO Margaret Ryan and Executive Director Robin Blunt. Asta Underwriting Management Ltd, supplies managing agency and operational services to BPBUW, with broking for the business provided by Marsh.
David Ashby Underwriting Ltd
David Ashby Underwriting Ltd, is a leading equine MGA. It is a Lloyd’s coverholder with capacity provided 50:50 by Hiscox and MS Amlin. In 2020, its first year of underwriting, it expects its GWP to total approximately £20 million. Founding CEO and CUO David Ashby is a leading figure in equine insurance and is Chair of Lloyd’s Livestock Committee.