Mt. Logan Re pipeline “terrific”, expected to grow, says Everest’s Williamson

For global insurance and reinsurance group Everest, the Mt. Logan Re Ltd. third-party capital vehicle is a key strategic priority for the long-term, one that the company intends to grow, COO and Head of Reinsurance Jim Williamson told us.

Speaking in an interview with Artemis and sister publication Reinsurance News around the time of the Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous, Everest’s reinsurance chief Williamson noted the important role Mt. Logan Re plays for the company, as a partnership capital vehicle and also risk management facility.

“It is very important to us, and we view it as a strategic long-term priority,” Williamson explained to us.

He also noted that, “We’ve brought in a new management team over the last couple of years, with a revitalised strategy, and a real emphasis on partnering with allocators who understand natural catastrophe risk, understand there will be losses and it will be volatile.”

Williamson added that, “The team has done a terrific job.”

“We went from about a low of let’s say $600 million or so of third-party capital, 18 months ago, to about a billion dollars in total third-party capital today, and we have a terrific pipeline.”

“I expect that to continue to grow,” he continued to explain.

For Everest, collateralized reinsurance investment vehicle Mt. Logan Re has been an important component of its capital stack in recent years.

Williamson said, “Mt. Logan has been our preferred risk and capital management tool, sitting alongside our balance sheet and sharing in our underwriting results on a proportional basis. We like this much better than certainly UNL retro, and for the most part better than facilities like cat bonds, etc.”

Looking ahead, Williamson sees Mt. Logan Re as an important part of the overall Everest strategy.

“Our emphasis is to grow Mt Logan, to do that with the right partners who are in it for the long term and, like our underwriting strategy, deliver great returns to them. We think that’s a winning formula,” he told us.

Adding that, “At the end of the day, we are still a balance-sheet-first company.

“We put our own resources at risk first, so to speak. But Logan is an important and strategic component and complement to that.”

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