S&P reconfirms The Club’s ‘A with a stable outlook rating’

‘We expect Norwegian Hull Club will retain its reputation as a premium marine insurer with very loyal members’, S&P states in the credit highlights of its most recent report, where The Club’s ‘Extremely strong capital adequacy’, its ‘recent exceptional underwriting performance’ and its ‘strong underwriting controls’ are emphasised as key strengths.

‘High-end loss-prevention, emergency response, and claims handling process’

In its analysis, S&P highlights The Club’s ‘strong service proposition’ and states its expectations that Norwegian Hull Club ‘maintains its position as a premium provider of marine insurance where it offers high-end loss-prevention, emergency response, and claims handling process’, acknowledging a member retention rate of above 90%.

In its 2024-2026 forecast, reflecting on Norwegian Hull Club’s recent years’ combined ratios, S&P expects The Club’s top line to continue to grow, while being conscious that The Club's close management of the underwriting cycle will see a more limited exposure and growth ‘at a slower pace than recent years’.

While Norwegian Hull Club operates in a niche market, S&P considers The Club’s geographically diverse client base a strength and further highlights how they expect the recent launch of the subsidiary, NIORD, a managing general agent offering offshore renewable energy covers, will generate significant premium income to The Club.

‘Substantial excess of capital above the 99.99% level’

S&P reconfirms its assessment from March 2024, following the rating company’s revision of its criteria for analysing insurers’ risk-based capital, and states that it ‘anticipates that The Club will maintain capital levels above our 99.99% confidence level over 2024-2025’, and further supports its forecast with an expectation that Norwegian Hull Club will maintain regulatory solvency cover above 250%. The 99.99% confidence level implies that the Club is capitalised for 1 in 10 000-year events according to S&P’s capital model – as required for AAA rated companies.

‘Highlights the importance of the people behind the rating’

‘Although it reflects what we believe in, our integrity and our perceived view of The Club, this maintained recognition of Norwegian Hull Club’s service concept and commitment to its members and clients, as well as of The Club’s underwriting performance and disciplined underwriting risk control from S&P makes me and us proud’, CEO of Norwegian Hull Club, Hans Christian Seim, states.

‘In addition to acknowledging a knowledge-sharing-based dedication to our clients that we are passionate about, it truly also highlights the importance of the people behind the rating, the people who remain engaged in always doing their job in a way that builds and preserves integrity, trust and loyal relationships. Such recognition is a motivator in delivering on our ‘Expect more’ promise,’ Seim concludes.

You can read the full report from S&P here.