S&P once again confirms The Club's 'A / Stable' rating
Norwegian Hull Club has once again been assessed as ‘A with stable outlook’ by S&P Global Ratings (S&P) in its latest report, issued April 11, 2025.
S&P highlights The Club’s key strengths as a ‘consistently top-quartile performer in the marine sector’, with ‘significant excess of capital’ beyond the rating body’s 99.99% confidence level. It also recognises that ‘strong underwriting controls help The Club manage the underwriting cycle’.
While acknowledging The Club’s standing as a ‘premium marine insurer’ with ‘high-end loss prevention, emergency response, and claims handling’ capabilities, S&P states: “We expect Norwegian Hull Club will continue recording underwriting results in the top quartile of its marine peers, with adjusted combined ratios (excluding the impact of return premium) below 95% over 2025-2026.”
‘Disciplined approach’
S&P further notes that: “While conditions in some of Norwegian Hull Club's key markets have become less favorable over 2024 and into 2025, we expect The Club's disciplined approach to underwriting risk will ensure technical profitability will remain strong.
“We anticipate that Norwegian Hull Club will retain its reputation as a premium marine insurer with very loyal members.” It also states that ‘while Norwegian Hull Club functions as a mutual in the interests of its members, it should continue to make technical profits over most of our forecast horizon’.
‘Strong underwriting results’
The credit-ratings agency goes on to say: “We anticipate that, while Norwegian Hull Club will continue to expand and return premium to members, its strong underwriting results and improved investment returns will allow it to maintain a substantial excess of capital above the 99.99% level. Furthermore, we expect The Club will maintain regulatory solvency above 250 per cent.”
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.
‘Efforts and experience’
Hans Christian Seim, CEO of Norwegian Hull Club, said: “This latest rating from S&P once again reflects the soundness of our service concept, delivered through the efforts and experience of our people. Staying relevant in an ever-changing world is crucial to our business model and S&P’s latest conclusions are a great incentive for us all at The Club to strive to maintain this approach, for the greater benefit of our clients and members.
“Having this - particularly our disciplined approach to underwriting risk - recognised by S&P, continues to be a source of pride for myself and my colleagues.”
You can read the full report from S&P S&P Global Ratings - Norwegian Hull Club - 11 April 2025.