SIRC 2026: Markel sees Southeast Asia as critical to international ambitions

November 4 2026 by

Markel plans to double down on specialty growth in Southeast Asia following the recent unification of its Singaporean and Malaysian units, according to its regional chief.  

Kevin Leung, who was recently appointed managing director for Southeast Asia, said that the Lloyd’s specialty carrier is targeting expansion of its specialty business in the region, particularly its marine and financial lines offerings.  

“The idea really was to create a seamless platform for us to more effectively address all our clients’ needs and to tackle the regional opportunities while also creating a more interesting platform for people to work on where they could develop their skills in a regional setting,” said Leung.  

According to Leung, the unification is partly also a reflection of Malaysia’s growing importance and potential as a market for specialty insurance.  

In recent years, Malaysia has emerged as one of the fastest-growing economies in the region thanks to its status as a hub for electronics manufacturing and data centres amid the ongoing global AI boom.   

“One of the main pillars of growth over the past two years has been in the construction industry where there’s been a lot of investments going into AI data centres and related areas,” Leung said.  

“I see a lot of potential opportunities from a specialty perspective. The obvious one is construction. But then if you look at all the other things that we do, marine cargo, project cargo, cyber, commercial general liability and such, I think there are more things that would benefit from the growth in this particular segment.” 

Leung also cited Malaysia’s cyber market as an area where specialty insurers have significant headroom to grow.  

“With all these new developments, renewables, data centres, and also infrastructure investments and just the general wealth and population growth, there will be a lot of specialty opportunities that come with all that,” he added.  

Marine

The marine market remains at the core of Markel’s long-term ambitions in the region, despite the significant disruptions suffered this year due to the conflict in the Middle East. 

Heading into 1.1 renewals, the marine market is unlikely to see any improvement, given the lack of regional stability, with the current softening rates rapidly becoming “unsustainable”. 

“I think the market will get to a point where we will have to see some hardening, because the current rate of reduction is simply not sustainable,” Leung said. “And all the premiums coming from the war side of things, that’s not your sort of regular marine income stream. That’s really born out of exceptional circumstances. Once that fades away, it is the core hull and cargo business that will need to sustain the marine insurance market.  

“Ultimately, I think our aspiration is really to be an outsized contributor to the bottom line of Markel as we’ve done in the past two years now.” Kevin Leung, Markel

According to Leung, the softening in the marine market is likely to stabilise in the medium term from the 10-15% rate of reductions seen during recent renewals. The specialty insurer also sees growth opportunities arising from the ongoing shipbuilding boom in India, China and South Korea.  

“We are actually seeing some other opportunities that dovetail quite well with our regular marine hull portfolio, and I believe we are well positioned to take advantage of emerging opportunities as well,” Leung said.

“I’m somewhat bullish in the M&E liabilities space especially vis-a-vis construction. We’ve got a new business that’s coming online and that’s part of our recent acquisition of MECO and that will offer us additional diversification into the P&I and charterers areas. 

 “Generally, the market will be a bit more sensible going into 2027 in the liability areas because of how uncertain the cost environment is. And the liability environment in the US and elsewhere is also getting a bit more unpredictable.” 

Markel completed the acquisition of specialist marine managing general agent, The MECO Group, in June 2025, following regulatory approval. 

Markel sees APAC as a critical component of its long-term growth plans and diversification, with the carrier targeting a 50:50 split between its London business and the rest of the world, with APAC accounting for 10% of its total international business by 2030, up from 6-7%. 

“Ultimately, I think our aspiration is really to be an outsized contributor to the bottom line of Markel as we’ve done in the past two years now,” Leung added. “Our ambition is to grow our APAC business to US$500 million over the next three to five years, while staying on this sustainable and profitable growth path.” 

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