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Aspen aims to slash expenses

Aspen CEO Chris O'Kane

Aspen Insurance Holdings Ltd intends to slash a total of $160 million off its expenses over the next three years through an efficiency overhaul.

The Bermudian-based insurer and reinsurer described the effort as “a comprehensive programme to drive greater effectiveness and efficiency across the company and enhance its market position”.

Savings will come through optimising work processes and increasing operational efficiency, Aspen said. It made no mention of whether there would be any impact on jobs.

Aspen expects to save $30 million in 2018, $55 million in 2019 and $75 million in 2020, after which run-rate savings are expected to be about $80 million per year.

The company added that it expected to incur pre-tax charges of some $95 million, most of that amount in 2018 and 2019, to implement the programme.

Aspen also plans to spend about $55 million in incremental capital expenditure, primarily information technology, over the next two years.

Chris O’Kane, Aspen’s chief executive officer, said: “The programme is the result of a rigorous bottom-up operational review of our organisation which balanced both risks and rewards.

“The planned actions are highly achievable and will enable our underwriters to focus more of their time on client- and broker-facing activities rather than on routine and duplicative tasks.

“The majority of the expected savings will benefit our insurance segment where we continue to build on the business line assessment we conducted in 2016 and the drive to improve profitability.

“As a result of this programme, we believe Aspen will be a more nimble organisation with faster decision-making ability, a competitive expense ratio and the ability to serve our clients even better than we do today.”

Aspen writes reinsurance and “complex insurance lines” out of its Bermuda office. It also has operations in the UK and US, as well as Ireland, Singapore, Germany, Canada, Australia and the United Arab Emirates.