The Liberty-owned managing agency – which acquired Pembroke when it purchased lronshore in May 2017 – underwrites cargo business through Lloyd’s syndicate 4000.
The cargo team is headed up by divisional director Andrew Corton, who joined Syndicate 4000 in 2012.
Corton works alongside his nephew, Oliver Corton, who joined Ironshore in 2015.
The syndicate underwrites a cargo book of physical loss or damage cover for industrial machinery, equipment, retail goods, agricultural produce, mineral oil and metals and ores, whilst in transit or stationary.
A significant proportion of premium written in the class is written through binding authorities.
The majority of the syndicate’s cargo exposures stem from business written through the London market and Ironshore’s offices in Singapore, Dubai, Hong Kong, Australia, and its Latin America hub in Miami.
The cargo team access capacity across multiple platforms including Lloyd’s - where Pembroke managed Syndicate 4000 – as well as Ironshore Insurance Services, and Ironshore Europe DAC.
In its 2017 Lloyd’s annual account Syndicate 4000 booked £414.4mn ($523mn) in gross written premium.
It fell to a loss of £28.9mn for the year and posted a combined ratio of 100.1 percent.
While the carrier does not break out the size of its cargo book – its marine, aviation and transport division made a loss of £10.8mn in 2017. The year before it lost £1.6mn.
The decision to exit the cargo business at Lloyd’s comes as Liberty prepares Pembroke for a potential sale.
In October Liberty revealed it had engaged corporate advisers Evercore to lead a “strategic review” of its Lloyd’s Pembroke Managing Agency.
The decision to exit the class also comes amid a wider crack down by Lloyd’s, which has threatened to close syndicates that consistently underperform.
Cargo is one of the seven classes in the Corporation’s sights.
Earlier this year, this publication revealed that Lloyd’s had issued a specific warning to marine underwriters, which it said must improve or face being barred from operating in the class.
Between 2011 and 2017 only 35 percent of syndicates writing cargo turned a profit.
Of the £7.1bn of premium written in the cargo market during the six year period, £5.2bn of this was unprofitable.
There has been significant retrenchment from the cargo line of business so far this year, with exits from the class including Acapella, Advent, AmTrust, Barbican and Sirius.
Pembroke declined to comment.