General Insurance Article - RSA and Lodestar Marine announce launch of new P&I product

 Protection & Indemnity start-up Lodestar Marine and leading marine insurer RSA have announced a new Fixed Premium P&I venture which will operate with immediate effect.

 RSA will supply capacity up to USD 100 million for Lodestar, in a deal that will allow Lodestar to begin quoting business straight away. Lodestar is also looking to provide further capacity up to USD 500 million in the near-term.

 Lodestar is the first independently-backed new start-up in the P&I market for many years. The business will initially concentrate on insuring smaller and specialized ships while delivering a first class underwriting and claims service.

 Charles Dymoke, co-founder of Lodestar said: “The fixed premium P&I market has long been divided up between a small number of major players and we would like to challenge that traditional dominance. We have recruited an excellent team, with more than 200 years of collective P&I experience. With this team in place and the support from RSA and Tawa we believe we have created a formidable partnership that will be able to provide the service and security which are the two key requirements of any ship owner”.

 David Vaughan, Chief Operating Officer of Tawa, who are capitalising the venture added “the launch of Lodestar is an exciting new venture for us, representing a new type of deal - one which mirrors the incubation facilities that exists for start-ups in Lloyd’s.