Not a Nordic raid, but Protector targets ‘fat and lazy’ firms

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The Oslo-based insurer has taken what is says is an investment stake in FBD and has expanded in the Nordic region

John Mulligan Twitter Email

April 16 2021 06:06 AM

PROTECTOR Forsikring likes to think of itself as a challenger to bigger rivals.

The Norwegian company was co-founded in 2004 by entrepreneur Sverre Bjerkeli, who remains the company’s chief executive.

In a podcast last month, he said the aim was to battle “fat and lazy” competitors.

Since it was established, the company has expanded across Scandinavia and entered the UK market.

It opened in Sweden in 2011, in Denmark in 2012 and in the UK and Finland in 2015.

The insurer floated on the Oslo stock exchange in 2007.

It wrote gross premiums of 5.5bn Norwegian crowns (€550m) last year and generated a 982m crown net profit. In 2019, it had posted a small loss.

Protector Forsikring told shareholders in its recent annual report that it had endured a “rough couple of years” but that its business was “back on track” in 2020.

The company counts commercial, municipalities and private customers among its clients.

In 2019, it said it would incur a £6.9m charge after it lost an arbitration battle with reinsurance firm Munich Re related to the tragic Grenfell Tower fire in London in 2017.

Protector had provided property and liability cover for the Kensington and Chelsea borough, which owned the tower.

But the Norwegian company had expected that Munich Re would be liable for most of the cost of the fire, which killed more than 70 people.

“It is unfortunate that this dispute has generated additional negative attention to the terrible human tragedy of Grenfell Tower,” said Protector in 2019 when it lost the arbitration case.

“Protector has a firm commitment to handle the remaining process of the Grenfell Tower claim with integrity and quality,” it added.

“The company also remains committed to the long-term plans for the UK operations,” it said.

In its latest annual report, Protector said that 2020 and the associated Covid crisis, was a “moment of truth” for its investment team.

“For several years prior to the Covid-19 financial turmoil, we had deliberately reduced risk within our investment portfolio, in preparation for a substantial market correction,” it told shareholders.

In spring last year, it bought the majority of available high-yield bonds in the Nordics.

“We invest for the long run; short term gains and losses will to a great extent be unrealised,” it said.