Resilience in the face of volatility during an extraordinary year. That was the message from The Swedish Club at its first quarter 2021 board meeting yesterday, held virtually from Gothenburg, Sweden.

The Club finished 2020 with an operating profit of USD 3 million; record free reserves at USD 231 million; and confirmation of the Club’s A- ratings as stable by S&P Global Ratings and A.M. Best.

The year ended with most business areas in balance. A strong investment return offset the P&I result, which reflected a combination of unprecedented Pool claims and the premium inadequacy that the whole sector is working to address. The Club recorded a total combined ratio of 123%, an anomaly compared with the performance of previous years.

Against background of unprecedented business disruption, The Swedish Club concluded a successful renewals year. With an owners’ P&I of GT 56 million – an all-time high and an increase of GT 6 million and more than 10% – the Club posted a record combined GT for owners’ and charterers’ entries of GT 88 million.

Managing Director of The Swedish Club, Lars Rhodin says: “The Swedish Club is proud to have achieved its highest ever retention rate of members at renewal. As a mutual we thank our members and business partners for this vote of confidence in the Club and in the way we do business.

“2020 was a challenging year for P&I and moving forward, the price gap in the market needs to be addressed. We are now at the point that something must be done, and done now, in order to avoid a stronger reaction in the future.”

The Swedish Club has continued to deliver value through a range of loss prevention initiatives, including its Trade Enabling Loss Prevention initiative and a demonstrated flexibility in adapting new technology to stay close to members.

Adds Lars Rhodin: “The last 12 months have been unprecedented, and we have worked hard to continue to provide the very best levels of service and support to our community. We continue to aim for improvement in everything we do.”