Overview
Key Business Information - Core Group
International
Key areas of business
We operate in 21 countries. The business comprises a balanced portfolio of operations in the mature markets of Canada, Ireland and Italy and selected emerging markets in Latin America, Asia and the Middle East. Canada accounts for around 40% of the International business. In Canada we are ranked number one in marine. In Latin America our largest operations are Argentina, Brazil and Chile where we are market leader. In Ireland we are ranked fourth overall. We have strong partners in India and China and consider these markets as longer term opportunities.
Key strategies
We are focused on building our position within countries, market segments and target trades where we have a competitive advantage. Our approach is to maintain pricing discipline and target profitable growth through continuously raising standards in underwriting, claims and customer management. We will balance organic growth with bolt on acquisitions in our current markets. We are focused on sustainable cost reduction and in 2005 there were major change programmes in Canada and Ireland. Our focus on development opportunities is balanced against our disciplined approach towards risk selection and pricing.
Highlights 2005
The COR improved by 1.9 points to 94.7% and the underwriting result increased by 40%. This reflects our focus on risk selection and underwriting discipline despite absorbing significant weather events. Johnson Corporation, our Canadian Personal direct business, continued to deliver double digit growth and acquired Morgex doubling our size in Alberta. Our Latin American operation demonstrated strong growth. In Brazil we consolidated our strong market position in marine and in Chile we acquired the leading general insurer Cruz del Sur.
Note
In addition to the Core Group we
have a discontinued operation
in the US. For details on this
operation refer to the US Operating Review.
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