Zurich:
Swiss Re, the second largest global reinsurance company, has appointed Hadi Riachi as CEO of its India branch, effective April 01.
Riachi succeeds G. Satish Raju,who would have completed two years soon as the Swiss Re’s India head. Raju would leave the reinsurer to pursue other opportunities.
This is the second time Swiss Re has shifted its India CEO since it set up its branch operations in 2017.Before Satish, Kalpana Sampat had quit as Indian CEO in 2018.
“We believe that Asia will drive 50 per cent of Swiss Re’s growth in this decade and part of that growth lies in our ability to capture the opportunities in high-growth markets, which includes India. With Hadi on-board, we have a leader with a wealth of experience in the P&C business and a proven track-record in realising the potential and opportunities in a high growth market environment, which will be instrumental to our growth plans in India.,” said Victor Kuk, head of P&C solutions, Southeast Asia, India, Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
“On behalf of the company, I would like to personally thank G. Satish Raju for his dedication over the last 19 years,” Kuk added. “During his tenure at Swiss Re, he has established good engagement with clients and government partners, deepening our presence in India.”
Swiss Re, after growing its India business aggressively, at around Rs 2000 crore, in 2017-18, its first full year of branch operations, had slowed down in 2018-19 when it had a total business of around Rs 2400 crore, clearly indicating that the global reinsurer would more focus on the growth of bottom line than top line.
Both in 2017-18 and 2018-19, the reinsurer had underwriting profit, second one after Axa to have made a underwriting profit in both the years.In 2017-16 Swiss Re had earned underwriting profit of Rs 61 crore whie in 2018-19, it had underwriting profit of Rs 78 crore
“We had reduced our crop portfolio during the year,’ Kuk had told Asia Insurance Post.
Riachi joined Swiss Re in 2015 as head of property & specialties for corporate solutions in Shanghai, China, where he covered a wide range of P&C lines.
Most recently, he was head of North Africa, where he helped grow the portfolio across the P&C and L&H business lines, while strengthening the public sector solutions footprint in the market.