Ariel Re is not looking to buy or sell and has sufficient runway to remain independent, CEO Ryan Mather said, as the reinsurer prepares for a possible small capital raise for its second Lloyd’s syndicate.
Asked where Ariel Re sits amid consolidation in the reinsurance sector, Mather said: “We’re a private company, we’re not going to sell. You know, we are happy trading as we are. We see that we’ve got a lot of runway to do lots of things.”
Speaking to The Insurer at the Rendez-Vous de Septembre in Monte Carlo, he also played down the prospect of Ariel Re becoming an acquirer.
“I don’t see us as buyers or sellers, frankly. We can be independent,” Mather said.
Backed by specialist financial investors Pelican Ventures and JC Flowers since 2020, Ariel Re is one of the larger independently run Bermuda reinsurers outside the listed sector. The company was founded in 2005, sold to Argo Group in 2017 and returned to private ownership when Pelican and JC Flowers acquired it from Argo.
Ariel Re is continuing to develop Syndicate 2006 at Lloyd’s, launched in 2025 to separate its non-property catastrophe business and attract a different pool of capital.
Mather said Ariel Re moved its non-property cat portfolio — including cyber, marine and clean energy — into the new vehicle, while retaining some property cat exposure through a quota share of Syndicate 1910. The structure places a “much brighter light” on the specialty portfolio and gives Ariel Re scope to grow it, he said.
The separation also gives capital providers greater clarity over the types of exposure, according to Mather. Investors supporting Syndicate 1910 know their exposure is to property cat losses and profits, while investors in the second syndicate have exposure to marine and cyber business, he said.
Investor demand for the new vehicle was strong, with Ariel Re raising substantial capital, much of it on a multiyear basis, Mather said.
“Quite frankly, it flew home. It was a very popular syndicate to support because the track record of the underlying business has been great. So lots of capital, a lot of it multiyear. So we’ve got good resilience in that business,” he said.
However, Ariel Re is likely to return to investors for a modest amount of additional capital as some funds remain supporting prior underwriting years.
“And I think in the second year, just the nuances of you leave some capital behind for the prior years, I think we’re going to have to raise a little bit more, but not very much,” Mather said.
