CHARMAN SAYS MONTPELIER’S LLOYD’S PLATFORM WILL PROVIDE PIVOTAL TOOL FOR GROWTH

John Charman, chairman and chief executive of Endurance, told a conference call following announcement of the $1.8bn deal the near term focus remains to grow the global insurance business in the next two to three years. He said the addition of Montpelier Re’s Lloyd’s platform would be a major tool in achieving this. “We now have all the tools in the toolkit to do that, in terms of people, platform and opportunity,” he said. “When we took over Endurance one of the main weaknesses in the company in terms of the insurance business was the lack of a London market presence. “We now have more than 20 very senior underwriters on the ground in London. I spent more than 30 years in the Lloyd’s community. It is extraordinarily complimentary to our businesses outside Lloyd’s. We can bring skillsets and products Lloyd’s would like to have,” he said. Charman said the deal was a significant step forward for Endurance, with both strategic and financial benefits. He said the increased scale the company would attain from the deal would allow the company to further increase relevance to key clients.