By Aidan Gregory

Feb 28 -

• Lockton Re plans selective hiring in France, MENA

• Private ownership aids Lockton Re's focus on organic growth

• Lockton Re expects 70% CAGR for 5 years to April 2025

(The Insurer) - Lockton Re plans to hire selectively in France and the Middle East as it focuses on organic growth in treaty reinsurance across the business lines it has invested in since 2019, its international CEO Keith Harrison told The Insurer this week.

“Over the last five years, we've really grown up to a team of 450 plus people covering pretty much every major line of business,” said Harrison, adding: "There are plenty of geographies that we are not in, but in terms of products and segments, we’re pretty much there across the board.”

The reinsurance broker operates hubs in London, the U.S., Bermuda and Zurich, and recently opened an office in Paris, where it is in the process of hiring 10 people. It will also look at doing "something more meaningful" in the Middle East, where the company has a regional headquarters in Dubai, said Harrison, without giving details.

“Our scope is to build deeper in the areas that we are in to keep up with the significant amount of growth we have had and add depth and expertise to existing product lines,” he added in an interview.

Lockton Re's parent company Lockton is owned by the Lockton family and Harrison said its private ownership and financing model has allowed the group the freedom to make long-term decisions and to retain a strict focus on organic growth in the markets it has chosen to invest in.

“If there is an opportunity there, we have significant investment from the group so we can move quickly,” he said.

"It gives us time to build businesses in the right way, rather than either to cut corners or not to do them, or to have to try and build them at a much faster rate and then sacrifice some of the building blocks that you need to build long-term sustainable businesses," he added.

Harrison said that Lockton Re, which competes with rivals such as Guy Carpenter, Gallagher and Aon, expects to achieve a five-year compound annual growth rate of 70% to April 2025, the end of its current financial year. It expects to achieve 30% organic growth over the next financial year, he added.

“I'd expect us to grow anywhere between 25% and 35% again,” said Harrison, adding: “We’re continuing to invest in the business, continue to hire the right talent, continuing to move opportunistically into either new territories or deeper and deeper in the product lines we're in."

“Whilst the world's changed around us, our plan hasn't changed at all, but our strategy is exactly what we decided on five years ago. It's worked very well for us, and we'll just continue on that path,”