The Norwegian Club Skuld and the British Shipowners’ Club report double-digit million profits, but remain far behind their previous year’s results.
Dividends, interest and share price gains boosted the results of P&I insurers last year and also helped them to overcome underwriting losses.
For example, the Norwegian club Skuld reported a surplus of USD 21 million for the past year 2024/25 (as at February 20) despite a sharp rise in loss ratios. In the previous year, the profit was around six times as high at USD 126 million. In contrast to the previous year, however, the pure insurance activities for P&I as well as for marine hull, offshore energy and other transportation lines delivered a hefty loss of around USD -71 million this time. The combined ratio – claims and operating expenses in relation to premium income – deteriorated from 86% to 112%.
According to the insurer, there was a massive increase in claims towards the end of the insurance year, particularly those over USD 1 million at P&I. However, thanks to increased investment income of USD 92.2 million (previous year: USD 73.4 million), the bottom line was a double-digit million profit, which increased the free reserves to USD 562 million.
Skuld had considerably expanded its insurance book last year with an increase in insured shipping tonnage at P&I of more than 10% to 119 million GT and growth in premium income across all lines of business of over 9% to USD 578 million.
Shipowners’ Club, which specializes in smaller tonnage, generated a surplus of USD 40.6 million in 2024 (previous year: USD 69.4 million), increasing its reserves to USD 447.5 million. The claims burden increased only moderately, meaning that the underwriting activities still delivered a surplus of USD 3.2 million. The combined ratio deteriorated slightly from 98.4% to 98.8%. Investment income, on the other hand, amounted to USD 37.4 million (previous year: USD 65.4 million) and thus once again proved to be a decisive factor. Like Skuld, the Shipowners’ Club was also able to significantly expand its business volume in P&I insurance. The insured shipowners’ tonnage grew by around 5% to 32.9 million GT, while premium income increased by 7% to almost $267 million. (mph)
