In its annual summary of the performance of the Group
P&I Clubs in toto and individually, broker Tysers said that American Club had
continued its recent policy of including EBUB (premium earned but unbilled) in
oits annual figures.
American Club has converted EBUB for 2018 – 2020 into
additional calls, and includes a figure of $26m for the 2021 year.
Tysers said that “the Club admits that 2021 was a
difficult year, and it is fair to assume there will be an additional call”.
The good news for the Club was that customers remained
loyal. Owned tonnage grew to just over 20m gt and chartered tonnage also saw an
increase.
Retained claims in 2021 were up from $59m last year to
$111m for 2021-22.
Prior years deteriorated by $35m (2020, $13m), and the
current year claims totalled $76m (2020 $46m) due to a large extent to
unusually high activity in the fourth quarter.
Covid claims rose to $6.3m, from around $2.5m the
previous year.
The underwriting loss was $14m, representing a combined ratio
of 112%. Tysers said that, if EBUB was excluded, the number would have come in
at 129%.
The fact that American Club reports on a calendar year
basis rather than a policy year basis enabled it to book an investment return
of just over 7%, because it avoided the market falls in the first six weeks of
2022. This helped reduce the final deficit to $8m.
Including EBUB for the last two years, free reserves have
dropped from $72m to $64m, while excluding EBUB they dropped from $47m to $36m,
said Tysers.
Tysers said it wondered whether if it was “simply not
possible to run the type of tonnage entered on a break- even basis”.
The Club’s hull facility, American Hellenic, is now licensed
to write P&I business as well and will henceforth be known as American Club
(Europe).
| Year | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 |
| /Premium | 175,605 | 113,934 | 137,085 | 95,951 | 98,389 |
| Reinsurance Cost | 29,866 | 23,306 | 28,411 | 22,546 | 24,194 |
| Net Claims (incurred) | 111,402 | 59,033 | 71,443 | 45,905 | 36,302 |
| Operating Expenses | 48,501 | 42,502 | 43,545 | 39,805 | 40,300 |
| Net Underwriting Result |
(14,166) | (10,907) | (6,314) | (12,305) | (2,407) |
| Gross Outstanding Claims |
253,798 | 215,440 | 215,503 | 192,689 | 193,493 |
| Total Assets | 402,136 | 365,769 | 341,224 | 308,060 | 322,228 |
| Average Expense Ratio | 21.30% | 22.20% | 24.30% | 26.60% | 27.90% |
| Solvency Margin | 1.58 | 1.70 | 1.58 | 1.60 | 1.67 |
| /GT Ratio | $3.14 | $3.85 | $3.17 | $2.42 | $3.37 |
All figures $’000
Figures include American Club’s system of EBUB – premium
earned but unbilled
Gross Tonnage
| Owned | 20,300,000 |
| Chartered | 2,800,000 |
Standard & Poor’s Rating
BBB–
Free reserves
| 2022 | 63,671,000 |
| 2021 | 72,000,000 |
| 2020 | 54,192,000 |
| 2019 | 45,225,000 |
| 2018 | 57,614,000 |
Tonnage by vessel type
| Bulkers | 35% |
| Tankers | 29% |
| /Ctr | 23% |
| /small craft |
13% |
Tonnage by geography
| EMEA | 56% |
| N America | 18% |
| Asia | 25% |
| Other | 1% |
