New company’s experienced executives, having worked more than twenty years in the hull & machinery insurance market, will now serve customers through an expanded global presence from offices in New York, London, Piraeus, Cyprus, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Dalian.
NEW YORK, OCTOBER 2, 2015: The American Club has announced a strategic investment in a new Cyprus-based hull insurance company, American Hellenic Hull Insurance Company, Ltd. (American Hellenic), as part of its continuing global expansion and diversification initiative. The new company will be managed by an experienced team of executives with over twenty years in the hull & machinery insurance market. The American Club’s investment will allow further expansion into the global hull & machinery segment enabling it to offer high quality insurance services and innovative customer solutions.
Arnold Witte, Chairman of the American Club’s Board of Directors
American Hellenic will be a Cyprus-based and licensed, Solvency II compliant, wholly-owned American Club subsidiary. It will be managed from Piraeus, Cyprus and New York, utilizing the expertise of long-standing professionals in the marine insurance market and will be serviced through specialists in offices located in seven major global shipping hubs with the ability to provide local market know-how and service to its customers, and to communicate in no less than eleven languages.
The American Club will now not only be able to continue offering first class marine protection and indemnity cover, but also, through its new subsidiary American Hellenic, will provide an expanded product line of marine insurance including hull & machinery, war risk, and mortgagee interest insurance.
Chairman of the American Club’s Board of Directors, Arnold Witte, in highlighting the significance of this strategic investment, said: “The Board of Directors carefully assessed the value of this business opportunity and voted unanimously in favor of supporting the American Hellenic hull insurance initiative. This is an historic moment in the Club’s long history and, through the dedication and ingenuity of the Club’s Managers and Board Directors, sparked by the idea of Board member Angelos Kostakos, represents a unique opportunity to prudently expand our market footprint, and bodes well for the future of the American Club.”
Vincent Solarino, President and COO of Shipowners Claims Bureau, Inc., Managers of the American Club also stated: “American Hellenic is an investment in the American Club’s future and is yet a further step in expanding and diversifying the Club’s product line. It is part of the Club’s overarching plan to significantly increase its revenue across a growing range of product lines, its tonnage across all lines, expand its market presence, while increasing its S&P rating. This is possible because the Club’s Directors and Managers have the grit, determination and initiative to make it happen”.
Joe Hughes, Chairman and CEO of the American Club’s Managers, concluded his colleagues’ remarks in saying: “This is one of the most significant developments in the American Club’s recent history. The transaction proceeded with the close and active cooperation of the Board of Directors of the American Club. I am certain that American Hellenic will prove to be a powerful force of growing energy within the international marine insurance industry.
Notes to Editors
The American Club was founded in February 1917. In addition to its US headquarters in New York, the club is able to provide local service across all time zones, communicating in 11 languages, with subsidiary offices in London, Piraeus, Cyprus, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Dalian, and a worldwide network of correspondents.