Warren Buffett buys into the Australian Insurance market.
One of the richest men in America, Warren Buffett has a controlling interest in the Insurance group Berkshire Hathaway Specially Insurance (BHSI). BHSI has purchased a small shareholding in Insurance Australia Group (IAG) (previously NRMA). BSHI has also taken on 20% of claims management allowing IAG to mitigate the effect on claims of home grown catastrophes by spreading the risk further. BHSI will also inject capital into this strategic partnership.
Peter Eastwood, Global President and CEO of BHSI said “Our underwriters go into the marketplace every day, thinking about the opportunities that our broker partners are presenting to us, with the objective of finding a solution, and finding a way to say ‘yes’, and not thinking about approaching the business from a rigidly defined risk appetite standpoint where, effectively, a box has been built and we [don’t] step outside of the box.”
“What I’m certainly hoping for is that brokers and customers will think to turn to us for, pretty broadly, what their needs are.”