Africa Specialty Risks Group has announced that it is continuing to expand its team in Mauritius, based on the strong performance and growth of its operations in the first year, with 15 staff members recruited to date. ASR has helped to de-risk US$3.5 billion of investments into Africa and has written business in 45 countries, proving the strong potential for Mauritius as a reinsurance hub for the continent.

Africa Specialty Risks (“ASR”), a pan-African reinsurance business focused on providing risk mitigating insurance solutions to the African Corporate and Specialty market, announced on 7 April 2022 that it is continuing to expand its team in Mauritius, based on the strong performance and growth of its operations in Mauritius since the launch of the business last year.

In May 2021, ASR launched a fully capitalised and licensed Reinsurer, based in Mauritius, to meet the needs of the African continent. It is backed by Helios Investment Partners, the largest Africa-focused private investment firm, through its latest private equity fund Helios Investors IV, L.P. whose investors include CDC Group (the UK’s development finance institution) and the International Finance Corporation (a member of the World Bank Group), as well as institutional investors.

Members of the senior management team based in London, including Mikir Shah, Chief Executive Officer, Bryan Howett, Chief Financial Officer, Caroline Hilton, Head of Treasury and Capital Management and Martin Boreham, Head of Liability Underwriting visited Mauritius in the second half of March to meet and train members of the growing team. They also met with local regulators, policy makers and market players to update them on the progress of the business and to explain their plans for further expansion.

Mikir Shah, CEO of Africa Specialty Risks, commented:

“We chose to set up Africa Specialty Risks Reinsurer in Mauritius as we see it as a central hub for Africa, with a skilled workforce. I am delighted to say that we have already made excellent progress in our first year of operation in Mauritius and the fact that we are expanding so rapidly proves why we came here. We have already helped to de-risk US$3.5 billion of investments into Africa by providing the specialist insurance coverage which investors need to realise their ambitions, and we have already written business in 45 countries. This proves the strong potential of Mauritius as a reinsurance hub for the continent.”

“Based on this very strong performance to date, driven by the high calibre staff we have attracted and recruited locally, we have already outgrown our first office premises and will be moving into a new office in the coming months. We see Mauritius at the heart of our operations and look forward to expanding our business further over the months to come.”

Krishna Bheenick, Managing Director Mauritius, said:

“Since our launch we have already hired 15 local staff in Mauritius, across underwriting, finance, actuarial, and risk and compliance functions and we will continue to expand our team as the business grows. We have a strong commitment to training our staff and offering them international exposure.”

Earlier this week, ASR’s Mauritian team attended a comprehensive liability underwriting workshop delivered by Martin Boreham, Head of Liability Underwriting during his market visit.

ASR is seeking to create a scalable African reinsurer which will be of real benefit to the African continent. It is providing comprehensive and bespoke risk mitigating insurance solutions, and offers capacity across Property, Construction, Political Risk, Trade Credit, Energy, Liability and Political Violence and Terrorism, Kidnap & Ransom and Security Risks, and Parametric.