Oak Re receives Lloyd’s start-up approval subject to Q4 capital raise
Former RenaissanceRe Europe CUO Cathal Carr has received provisional approval from Lloyd’s this week for a 2025 start-up syndicate that will be managed by third-party managing agency PoloWorks, The Insurer can reveal.
Oak Re – which is being advised by Evercore – is currently in talks with potential private equity investors but is also now considering third-party Lloyd’s capital providers including individual investors or funds such as Helios.
Carr, who left the Bermudian reinsurer late last year, is putting together a well-regarded senior management team including Alex Winfield, the former AlphaCat Managers and Willis Re executive, as chief risk officer.
Subject to a successful capital raise, it will be the first full syndicate managed by the insurance services arm of Marco Capital, which gained a Lloyd’s managing agency with its Capita deal in 2022 and has since established a third-party management arm.
Late last year Polo took over the management of the Coverys run-off Syndicate 1975 and last month The Insurer revealed it had also taken on the management of R&Q Syndicate 1110.
It came close to launching a live syndicate earlier this year on behalf of UK commercial heavyweight Aviva before the latter decided to acquire an existing Lloyd’s insurer, Probitas.
If Oak Re does utilise Lloyd’s third-party capital investors, it will follow in the footsteps of Fidelis Partnership Syndicate 3123, which launched at mid-year and has an accelerated growth strategy funded predominantly by Lloyd’s Names.
The planned 1.1.25 syndicate is expected to write lines including property, specialty and cyber and a combination of direct and reinsurance. Earlier today, Lloyd’s published its H1 results, which it described as “outstanding” with an impressive combined ratio of 83.7 percent, the best in 17 years.
Lloyd’s has been approached for comment and we hope to update this story with a statement in due course. Marco Capital has also been approached for comment.