More Lloyd's insurers report underwriting losses as market gets tougher

More managing agent groups at Lloyd's of London reported underwriting losses in 2025 than in the previous three years as trading conditions in the specialty insurance market became more challenging.

Five managing agent groups reported a combined ratio above the 100% breakeven point, compared with just one in 2024, two in 2023 and four in 2022, according to an S&P Global Market Intelligence analysis of syndicates' annual results.

The study analyzes the performance of the 57 managing agents operating at Lloyd's by aggregating the results of the syndicates they manage. In cases where an insurance group owns more than one managing agent, they are aggregated into managing agent groups.

Reserves revisited

Lime Syndicate Management Ltd.'s combined ratio of 124.2%, the highest in the study, was due to the newness of Somers Syndicate 3705, the sole syndicate under its management last year.

New syndicates typically report underwriting losses because their net earned premiums are small relative to claims and expenses. Syndicate 3705 started underwriting Jan. 1, 2025.

Most of the worst combined ratios in 2025 were produced by established syndicates. Liberty Managing Agency Ltd.'s sole syndicate, 4472, reported a combined ratio of 107.8% for the year, a stark contrast from 89.1% in 2024. The main driver was a 17-percentage-point increase in the loss ratio to 73.3% from 56.3%. Reserve strengthening contributed 11.5 points to the increase, most of which was for claims from the Russia-Ukraine war, Liberty said in Syndicate 4472's accounts.

The UK High Court ruled in June 2025 that a group of insurers were liable to pay claims under war risk policies for leased aircraft stranded in Russia following the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022. Insurers also settled some lawsuits that aircraft lessors have filed against them to compensate them for the stranded jets. Syndicate 4472 did not specify what legal developments or settlements triggered its reserve strengthening. Liberty did not provide a comment by press time. Syndicate 4472 also reported a 5.9-percentage-point increase in its attritional loss ratio, which measures the effect of business-as-usual claims.

SA Meacock & Co. Ltd.'s only syndicate, 727, also swung to an underwriting loss, posting a combined ratio of 104.6% in 2025, compared to 92.9% for 2024. "Adverse catastrophe activity" and reserve strengthening for the 2023 and prior years of account caused the increase, the syndicate said in its accounts. SA Meacock declined to comment.

Catastrophe reinsurers outperform

Managing agent groups that focus on property-catastrophe reinsurance produced the lowest combined ratios in 2025. The year was not devoid of natural catastrophes with wildfires in Los Angeles at the start of the year and Hurricane Melissa's major impact on Jamaica in the fall. Notably, however, the US did not experience a single hurricane landfall in 2025.

So-called primary perils, historically the biggest loss drivers, only made up 8% of the $107 billion insured natural catastrophe losses in 2025, according to Swiss Re. The remainder came from typically less severe, more frequent events such as fires, convective storms and floods. Thanks to changes reinsurers made to catastrophe reinsurance coverage in 2023, which aimed to limit their exposure to these secondary perils, primary insurers now bear much of the claims bill from these events.

The lowest combined ratio in this analysis was reported by Ariel Re Managing Agency Ltd. and derived from Syndicate 1910. The syndicate attributed its "exceptional" performance in 2025 to a lack of hurricanes.

RenaissanceRe Syndicate Management Ltd.'s 71.3% combined ratio, from Syndicate 1458, also got a helping hand from "relatively low catastrophe activity" in 2025, according to the syndicate's accounts. The combined ratio also benefited from "strong attritional claims performance."

The 69.2% combined ratio for US insurance group Markel Group Inc.'s Lloyd's operations was an outlier. The result was derived from Markel Syndicate Management Ltd.'s Syndicate 3000, and Nephila Syndicate Management Ltd.'s 2357 and 2358. Nephila Syndicate Management is backed by insurance-linked securities investors.

Syndicate 2357's underwriting performance was skewed by a new loss portfolio transfer transaction for its 2023 and prior business, which the company entered into Aug. 12, 2025. The transaction reinsures 100% of losses from the covered years. The transaction reduced net earned premium and resulted in the syndicate reporting a claims benefit rather than a claims expense, producing a combined ratio of negative 79.1%. Excluding the effects of the loss portfolio transfer, the syndicate would have reported a combined ratio of positive 29.5%, which the accounts said was the result of benign catastrophe experience.

Tougher conditions

While still profitable, underwriting results at Lloyd's of London as a whole have worsened in recent years. The collective combined ratio for the market in 2025 was 87.6%, up from 86.9% in 2024. The underlying combined ratio, which excludes major claims, was 81.8%, up from 79.1% a year earlier.

Prices in many global specialty insurance and reinsurance lines Lloyd's underwrites have been falling, putting pressure on underwriting profitability.

The biggest decline in gross written premiums was reported by RenaissanceRe Syndicate Management. The decrease affected both the property and casualty/specialty segments of Syndicate 1458 and was driven by "current market conditions," according to its accounts.

Beazley Furlonge Ltd. reported a 17.8% drop in gross written premium. This largely stemmed from Beazley PLC transferring US excess and surplus lines business from Lloyd's, primarily at Syndicate 3623, to its local US insurer.

Some of the reduction stemmed from falling prices. The 4.7% gross written premium decline at Syndicate 2623, Beazley's largest syndicate, was mainly caused by a 2.9% average reduction in prices across the portfolio. The biggest price drops were in cyber, where rates fell 5.8%, and property, where rates declined 4.6%.

Beazley Furlonge remained the largest managing agent at Lloyd's in 2025, just ahead of Asta Managing Agency Ltd., which jumped to second from fifth after a 44.7% increase in gross written premium. Asta manages startup and early-stage syndicates for third parties. All but two of the 18 existing syndicates under Asta's management grew year over year in 2025. It also added a new syndicate, Convex Group Ltd.'s Syndicate 1984, which started underwriting April 1, 2025, and wrote $140.3 million worth of gross premium in its first year.

Polo Managing Agency Ltd., which also manages third-party syndicates, continued its rapid growth, increasing gross written premium to £328.4 million from £10.8 million a year earlier. The substantial growth was caused by the addition of two new syndicates: 2025, backed by insurer and reinsurer Awbury Group LLC, and Oak Re's 2843. Polo Managing Agency was excluded from the largest risers in gross written premium because of a non-meaningful percentage change.