Growing with scale and purpose – QBE Re’s Chris Killourhy

The first half of 2025 has been far from straightforward for global reinsurers. From significant wildfire losses to the changing market conditions, the reinsurance sector is facing some headwinds alongside the opportunities.

For QBE Re, the start of the year brought a major loss event in the LA wildfires, but its managing director Chris Killourhy says the business has maintained its growth momentum and is well-positioned for the rest of the year.

“We’re pretty pleased with how the year has gone,” he says. “We’re pleased with the level of growth we’ve achieved. Like a lot of people, we have definitely seen rate softening, but for the most part it’s in markets where we feel they’re at adequate levels and can afford to sustain some softening.”

The wildfires early in the year, he acknowledges, were “a tough start,” particularly for the communities directly affected.

From an industry standpoint, however, he feels the response was measured.

“I do feel the market responded in a pretty sensible way following the wildfires,” he says. “It kept some sanity in rate movements on US renewals in particular.”

Scaling with purpose

A combination of discipline and adaptability has underpinned QBE Re’s approach in recent years, Killourhy explains.

The company has grown materially, doubling its reinsurance premium income while materially reducing its cedant count. The goal has been to expand in areas that support long-term partnerships with cedants and brokers.

Killourhy believes today’s market rewards reinsurers that bring scale, balance sheet strength, and breadth of offering – while leaving less room for players without a distinctive proposition.

“This is probably not a market for also-rans,” he says. “We have grown our reinsurance book materially over the last couple of years and pretty much doubled our premium. At the same time, we’ve reduced our cedant count.”

He points to QBE Re’s geographic spread, balance sheet strength and product diversity as differentiators, noting that the firm has climbed in industry rankings.

“For many of our core clients, we’d now be well into their top 10, and for the bigger brokers, we’d be within their top 20.”

While headline growth is important, Killourhy stresses that scale must be purposeful. It should enable a reinsurer to offer multi-line support across programmes and to deliver consistency in relationships, factors he says are increasingly valued by buyers.

“A lot of buyers of reinsurance have become a lot savvier in how they think about partnership,” he explains.

“They’re looking at the strength of the balance sheet, the ability to write across programmes, to write multiple products for consistency. We needed to generate a bit more scale to do that.”

Value within the group

QBE Re’s position within the wider group brings both opportunities and responsibilities. It requires clarity about the strategic role of a reinsurance business in a parent that is predominantly an insurer.

Killourhy recalls a moment of strategic reflection in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, when other large insurance groups were also reassessing their reinsurance operations. “We landed on the view that a reinsurer within a bigger insurance vehicle could deliver real diversity of earnings,” he says.

“If we were deliberate about playing at different parts of the curve – moving up programmes, getting away from certain insurance losses – reinsurance could be a way of accessing business where QBE was a little bit lighter.”

He gives the example of targeting underweight regions or product areas. “If we were underweight in Asia, for example, reinsurance was a good way of accessing that business,” he says.

Recognising the potential was only the first step. The second was to ensure the reinsurance arm was large and strong enough to earn its place.

“Once you land on the fact that you see it as a valuable asset, you have a responsibility to achieve the necessary scale for it to succeed,” Killourhy says. “If you’re just seen as something added on at the end, it doesn’t get the investment or the capacity allocation it needs.”

He sees this integration as mutually reinforcing. The reinsurance unit can benefit from the group’s balance sheet and reputation, while also contributing diversification and access to opportunities the primary business cannot easily reach. That diversity, he argues, strengthens the group’s earnings profile and provides resilience in changing market conditions.

Bright future for the strategic

While acknowledging that some pricing has softened in 2025, Killourhy views the overall reinsurance environment as attractive for those with the right mix of capital strength, product breadth, and client focus.

“Our growth has been about being selective,” he says. “We’ve concentrated on markets where pricing remains adequate and where we can bring value beyond price.”

This approach, he notes, requires a deep understanding of a cedant’s evolving needs. It also means thinking in terms of partnership rather than transaction.

“You’ve got to land on what the real strategic value is,” he says.

“Because if you’re just seen as something that gets added on, it doesn’t get the level of investment or the necessary allocation of capacity.”

Killourhy believes this thinking extends across the sector, as buyers of reinsurance increasingly evaluate partners on long-term reliability and strategic fit. “They’re looking beyond price,” he says. “They want to see consistency, breadth of offering, and the security of a strong balance sheet.”

For QBE Re, that means continuing to balance disciplined underwriting with targeted expansion, leveraging its global reach to access new opportunities, and ensuring its place as a trusted partner in the programmes it supports.

“I think the size we’ve got ourselves to now builds up confidence in the buyers,” Killourhy says. “It means we can write across programmes, offer multiple products consistently, and be a partner clients can rely on in the long term.”

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