Friday, March 29, 2024

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Brembo, Hitachi Energy form Switzerland captives, Swisscom re-domesticates

Two new captives have been authorised by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) this month, with a third re-domesticating from Liechtenstein earlier this year.

Brembo Re AG, owned by the Italian manufacturer of automotive brake systems Brembo S.p.A., and Hitachi Energy Re, owned by the Japanese multinational, received ‘C3’ captive reinsurance licences in May.

Brembo Re has also hired Fedele Cappiello as its general manager. Cappiello was previously responsible for captive strategy at Stellantis and managing director of Neptunia Marine Insurance Ltd, the group’s Swiss-domiciled captive.

Captive Intelligence understands both are managed by Strategic Risk Solutions, which opened an office in the domicile in 2021, taking its number of captives under management in Switzerland to four.

Brembo Re will be writing liability and product recall, while Hitachi Energy Re is insuring property, liability and marine.

Telecommunications company Swisscom has also chosen to re-domesticate its Liechtenstein reinsurer to Switzerland, first establishing a new subsidiary and then merging in the existing vehicle.

Swisscom Re AG has received a C1 reinsurance licence, rather than a C3, and is self-managed.

There are several large captives in Switzerland, such as those owned by Nestle and Ikano, that are classified as C1 under the FINMA regime.

Captive Intelligence understands there is expected to be further re-domestications from Liechtenstein to Switzerland.

The three new licences in 2023 follows the formation of STMicroelectronics Re SA in December 2022, owned by STMicro, a Dutch multinational headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and Barry Callebaut Re AG earlier last year, a captive for the Belgian-Swiss cocoa processor and chocolate manufacturer Barry Callebaut. Both are C3 licences.