ICICI Lombard has grown over the past 12 years to be the number one private non-life insurance company in India with $1.2 billion in gross premiums, an investment portfolio of $1.3 billion and common shareholders’ equity of $318 million. We have a 26% interest! Alltrust in China (a 15% interest) writes $900 million in gross premiums with an investment portfolio of $821 million and common shareholders’ equity of $374 million. On a look-through basis, we have approximately $1 billion in gross premiums in Fairfax Asia, an investment portfolio of $1.5 billion and common shareholders’ equity of $658 million. With the exception of Alltrust, we are actively involved in the management of the investment portfolios of all these companies.
All of this came from a single idea many years ago to expand into Hong Kong through Falcon and into India through ICICI Lombard. A big thank you to the management teams at Fairfax Asia led by the Athappans (Mr. A. and Gobi), who also run First Capital and Falcon Hong Kong. Pacific Insurance in Malaysia is run by Sonny Tan, Falcon Thailand by Sopa Kanjanarintr, ICICI Lombard by Bhargav Dasgupta, and Alltrust by Sam Chan. We have a very sound base in Asia, and with the excellent management teams we have built, the opportunity for growth is unlimited.
From Fairfax Financial 2013 Chairman’s Letters to Shareholders
