Full Capacity: More room for softening after mid-year; Hub IPO could come in hot

July 4 2026 by

Welcome to Full Capacity, a weekly briefing on all the most important developments of the past week with a personal take on the news from our editor-in-chief, Mithun Varkey, delivered to your inbox every Saturday.    

IAN exclusive. The High Court of Hong Kong has granted Marsh an interim injunction barring four former executives – Rohan Bhappu, Raymond Law, Rebecca Poon and Cyrus Cheung – from soliciting clients or using confidential company information for Howden in a poaching lawsuit brought by Marsh, but stopped short of compelling the defendants to identify any alleged misuse of confidential information. 

In another exclusive, InsuranceAsia News reported that Bangkok-headquartered boutique broker Continuum has tapped Howden executive Andy Tam to lead the buildout of its presence in Hong Kong.  

M&A spotlight. The long-drawn sale of Korean general insurer Yebyeol Non-Life Insurance has entered final bids with four players – Heungkuk Fire & Marine Insurance, OK Financial Group, JC Flowers, and Korea Investment Holdings – submitting offers as of the bidding deadline on June 30.  

Meanwhile, QBE Insurance Group became the first international insurer to complete the acquisition of 100% ownership of its Indian joint venture. The Australian carrier bought out its Indian partner for about US$35.5 million, following regulatory and shareholder approvals. Raheja QBE will now be rebranded as QBE. 

Alternative structures. Singapore will propose a framework to allow protected cell company (PCC) structures, facilitating the issuance of alternative risk transfer solutions in the city-state. PCCs allow the separation of assets and liabilities between multiple independent cells under a single legal entity. 

Absorbing volatility. Public-private reinsurance solutions must be built to absorb volatility, not just price for it, and they should help stabilise the insurance market without displacing private insurers, says ARPC CEO Christopher Wallace. 

Speaking at an OECD-ADBI roundtable in Colombo, he said that Australia’s experience shows solutions take time, requiring iteration, clear communication and trust.  

No single lever will work – but combining public support, functioning markets, and stronger resilience incentives can preserve protection where it matters most. 

The floor is lower

Record capital and increased competition have driven rate cuts at the just-concluded July 1 renewals. With pressure on insurers to deploy their retained earnings and competition from alternative capital, it does seem that there is still room for rating reductions and pricing has yet to hit the floor.  

Pricing is converging towards technical adequacy rather than overshooting it, said Gallagher Re’s Tom Wakefield. The broker’s APAC head Roshan Perera, meanwhile, told IAN that reinsurer appetite remained strong at 1.7 with reinsurers maintaining an “ambition to grow” and support clients through flexible deal-making. and support clients through flexible deal-making. 

Aon noted that the mid-year renewals also demonstrated a continued shift towards more customised and creative solutions, while reinsurance capital reached a record US$790 billion.  

While Guy Carpenter reported that the global property cat rate-on-line index fell from minus 12% in January to minus 16% at the mid-year renewals and it expects the trend to continue through the remainder of the year. 

The question for the remainder of the year, Howden Re said, is whether the structural improvements being made now will prove sufficient as the global risk environment continues to evolve. 

However, brokers and insurers do note that reinsurers remain disciplined, but it remains to be seen how much longer the carriers will hold the line before topline targets start dictating the market. 

The Hub blueprint

Hub International’s confidential IPO filing in the US may lack the spectacle of a SpaceX-style debut, but for the insurance broking world, this could be one that actually matters. 

The private equity-backed American insurance broking giant’s listing has the potential to reset how public markets value insurance intermediaries – particularly those built on private equity playbooks.  

And if the numbers hold, it sends a clear message: scale, consolidation, and disciplined acquisition can command premiums on par with the industry’s biggest incumbents. 

Hub’s trajectory is hard to ignore. Since Hellman & Friedman bought in at a US$4.4 billion valuation in 2013, the firm has ballooned to around US$29 billion, fuelled by relentless M&A – more than 500 deals, including nearly 50 last year alone.  

Hub’s US$1.6 billion fundraising in May last year from marquee firms including T. Rowe Price, Alpha Wave Global and Singapore’s Temasek valued the intermediary at 16-18x EV/EBITDA. 

The private valuations are comparable to listed peers like Marsh, Aon, Gallagher and Ryan Specialty and notably, a premium to WTW, which at a market cap of about US$26 billion is trading at a relatively modest 11.5x multiple.  

Private capital will be watching closely.  

The Hub IPO does not just open an exit window – it could be the blueprint. Build scale aggressively, integrate effectively, and public markets may reward you. 

This could have implications for Asia Pacific.  

The Amwins-Dragoneer move on Australia’s largest broker Steadfast last month is an early sign. At roughly 10.5–11.5x EBITDA, the Steadfast deal looks, in this context, almost conservative.  

A successful Hub listing could be a positive for the sector and put pressure on brokers, including APAC assets, to re-rate – especially those with fragmented domestic markets ripe for roll-ups. 

If that plays out, APAC’s broking landscape could be ripe for accelerated consolidation –  the scale could be much smaller but the growth prospects surely command a premium.  

And Hellman & Friedman’s unusual 13-year investment horizon offers a clear message for regional founders and mid-tier brokers: patient consolidation could pay dividends. 

People moves

In senior management changes in the region, Allianz Commercial has promoted Awa Ketty-Camara to regional head of multinational Asia. 

Fraction Brokers Asia co-founders Dan Dibden and Onno Sterk have joined Oneglobal Broking in senior roles. 

AIG has appointed Koki Umeda as vice chairman and tapped Brian Jee as head of financial lines in Singapore. 

Coface named Vy Le as Vietnam country manager and appointed Ivor Miric as head of debt collection sales for APAC. 

Jill Stewart has been named head of Australia for Probitas Pacific. 

Do check out our weekly people move round-up to stay up to speed on the most important appointments in the region. 

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