Protection & Indemnity

The Swedish Club | www.swedishclub.com

2017/2018 financial year results

  • Owned tonnage increased by 9.2%
  • Premiums reduced by -7.8% (though this includes a 4% premium rebate in the 2017 financial year)
  • Gross and net paid claims reduced by -33.2% and -11.6% respectively
  • Net incurred claims reduced by -7.9%
  • USD 5.1 million underwriting deficit (without the 4% premium rebate, this would have been a loss of only USD 1.6 million)
  • Overall loss on the P&I class of USD 1.05 million (which would have been a USD 2.37 million surplus, without the 4% premium rebate)
  • 7.7% investment return
  • -2.6% reduction in net outstanding claims
  • Free Reserves increased by 8.9%

Combined Ratio

The Swedish Club’s P&I net combined ratio deteriorated from 99.4% in 2016 to 107.3% in 2017.

However, the Swedish Club rebated 4% of the P&I premium in the 2017 financial year, which reduced their estimated total premiums by USD 3.14m.

If the full estimated total premiums were charged in this year the Swedish Club’s (underlying) P&I combined ratio would have been 102.2%

Consolidated Financial Year Summary (USD 000s)

P&I only results 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18
Income and Expenditure
Calls and Premiums 110,112 104,657 96,461
Reinsurance Premiums -26,983 -25,217 -27,109
Operating Expenses -14,654 -14,889 -15,348
Operating Income 68,475 64,551 54,004
Gross Paid Claims 113,131 110,927 78,078
Net Paid Claims 52,910 66,695 58,979
Net Change in Provision for Claims 5,744 -2,592 74
Net Incurred Claims 58,654 64,103 59,053
Technical Surplus (Deficit) 9,821 448 -5,049
Investment Income -3,848 3,700 4,000
Overall Surplus for Year (Deficit) 5,973 4,148 -1,049
       
Balance sheet
Net Assets 410.9 415 427.9
Net Outstanding Claims 227.8 220.1 214.4
Free Reserves 183.1 194.9 213.5
Entered tonnage (GT, millions) 2016 2017 2018
Owned / Mutual 43.5 46.8 51.1
Chartered / Fixed 21.7 24.2 31.9
Total 65.2 71.0 83.0
       
S&P Rating History 2016 2017 2018
   BBB+  BBB+  BBB+ 
       
Average Expense Ratio (AER) 2016 2017 2018
Five years ending 20 February 13.3 13.3 13.4

Combined Ratio

Combined ratios provide a direct comparison of club underwriting performance. The combined ratio is essentially the net loss ratio for the club and is defined as follows:

Combined ratio =

(Net incurred claims + operating expenses)
(Premium – reinsurance costs)

  • A combined ratio of 100% represents an underwriting break-even position
  • Anything in excess of 100% would be an underwriting loss
  • A combined ratio less than 100% would represent an underwriting surplus.

Average Expense Ratio (AER)

Average Expense Ratios (AERs) were introduced in 1999 following pressure from the European Commission in an attempt to enable direct comparisons of operating costs between clubs within the International Group. The formula that all clubs are required to adhere to when calculating their AER figure is as follows:

The AER formula is the
five-year average of:

(Operating expenses x 100)
(Premium income + Investment income)

In principle the AER is a reasonable idea, but in reality it is only ever a very approximate guide to the relative operating costs of individual clubs. For example different membership profiles, disproportionately high levels of premium or investment, whether the club owns or rents their office space, how much the club spends on loss prevention, global office network, member portals etc all have an impact on the AER.