Elmo Insurance Ltd have joined forces with the UK’s Jardine Lloyd Thomson Group plc to form a new captive management operation in Malta, JLT Insurance Management Malta Ltd.
Speaking to the media yesterday, representatives from the two companies said that through captive management services, JLT would seek to enable clients to manage their risk in a more financially efficient way, thereby improving their clients’ economic model.
Elmo director David Bartoli said: “We have joined together to build in this field. Synergies will allow us both to gain through using our strengths and attempting to eliminate our weaknesses.”
Mr Bartoli said that Elmo Insurance was set up in 1938 with a vision. “That vision has taken time to materialise, but today we are here.”
Captive management services are a growing industry that provides challenging careers in an international arena. Captives operating worldwide generate e500 million of expenditure with service-providers in the local economies in which they operate. There are in excess of 6,000 companies that have captives and they emanate from all corners of the globe. Captives generate employment for the staff of the
management companies, auditors, bankers, investment managers, regulators, IT firms and support services. Their contribution to the economies and infrastructure of the domiciles where they are based is significant.
Explaining the decision to set up domicile in Malta, JLT chairman Nick Wilde said: “In 2006, JLT identified a growing interest from companies in establishing captives in an EU domicile. This led to a project which identified Malta as the domicile of choice and Elmo as a preferred partner for this new venture.”
He said there were many reasons for Malta’s attraction as a base for captive management services, including the fact that it was a low cost, low tax environment with a skilled workforce.
JLT also said that the regulatory framework of Malta assisted in the speed of setting up new captives. As an EU member, Malta permits licensed insurance companies to write direct business in all EU/EEA countries.
Mr Wilde said that in Elmo, JLT had found a partner that had the same service ethos and ambition to grow a quality operation in Malta. “There is significant strength and depth in the team that will run the company and it intends to set the standard against which the competition will be measured,” he said.
He added that the new venture would create employment and that the company would be looking into setting up various training and education schemes to facilitate employment of the workforce.