Howden outlines ‘30/30 Vision’ £10bn growth plan
Howden Group CEO David Howden has set an ambitious target for the group, aiming to grow it into a £10bn business by 2030.
Speaking with The Insurer TV during the reinsurance Rendez-Vous in Monte Carlo in a joint interview with Howden Re’s international CEO Massimo Reina, Howden outlined his “30/30 Vision" setting the path for the group’s growth over the next six years.
"In our 30th year, we’ve come up with what we call our '30/30 Vision' for 2030," Howden stated.
"We’ve trebled in size in the last three years, and we think we can treble in size again in the next four years."
Howden’s goal is to build a global (re)insurance powerhouse with a revenue target of £10bn and a workforce of around 40,000 people, half of whom are expected to be shareholders.
Reflecting on the journey so far, Howden spoke of the company’s dramatic transformation from its humble beginnings in 1994.
"The fundamentals of our business have stayed the same. We always built it around this cornerstone of friendship, trust, and employer ownership," Howden said. "We had to innovate, listen to clients, and collaborate with each other."
This emphasis on innovation has been particularly evident in Howden’s reinsurance division, which has seen rapid growth since the merger with TigerRisk.
"We said one of the critical things we needed to do was build a credible reinsurance broker," Howden explained. "We’re now three times the size we were three years ago, and we’ve created a proper fourth reinsurance broker."
Reina, CEO of Howden Re’s international division, echoed this sentiment, describing the unique position Howden Re holds in the market.
"We are building a global reinsurance broker on the back of the Howden international footprint and the TigerRisk platform," Reina said.
He emphasised the importance of advanced analytics and top-tier talent in creating a competitive edge. "The entry barriers to our business are quite high. You need to have a comprehensive analytic offering for clients and very sophisticated tools."
Focus on capital markets
One weapon in Howden Re’s arsenal is the established capital markets division it obtained through its acquisition of TigerRisk in January 2023.
"TigerRisk had a capital management business, which is a real differentiator in this business," Reina noted. "The game today is to develop an ability to bring capital to market in a more effective way and bring more diversified capital to less diversified balance sheets."
Howden’s reinsurance strategy places significant emphasis on capital markets, with a focus on bringing in new capital and creating liquidity within the industry.
"We’ve brought in about $6bn of new capital in the last 12 months alone," Howden highlighted. However, he acknowledged the need for a broader industry shift towards a more dynamic capital market. "Unless you have a proper capital market with true liquidity there, I think we are beginning to do a lot, but I worry it's not correct from a macro viewpoint."
Looking ahead, both Howden and Reina expressed a commitment to innovation and creating new solutions for clients.
"We’re trying to be innovative, we want to be creative, and we have a massive passion for what we do," Reina said, underlining the team’s dedication to addressing the evolving risks in the sector.
"The publication of the recent report 'Beyond the horizon: shaping the future of risk' describes the risks in the sector today, which are not just changing in size and type, but are also more interconnected."
Howden reinforced this vision, pointing to the company’s role in leading change within the insurance industry.
"We want to build a great global business that clients, markets and insurers love and critically, that talent wants to join," he said. "We need to really work out how to make sure we remain relevant as an industry in a massively changing time for our clients."
Watch the 11-minute video with David Howden and Massimo Reina to hear more about their bullish growth ambitions for the firm’s growing reinsurance division.