QBE’s Horton: ‘We’ve moved from remediation to growth’

Three and a half years into his tenure as group CEO of QBE, Andrew Horton exudes calm confidence. After a period of reshaping the business and resolving legacy issues, Horton says the group is now poised for broad-based expansion, from QBE Re, to mid-market Australian business, to cyber around the globe.

“I’d like to see growth in almost every area in 2025,” he says. “We’re looking at growing QBE Re, growing our facilities—portfolio solutions in London—expanding our accident and health business in the US, and growing our cyber business.”

That breadth reflects QBE’s global footprint and diverse offering. “The beauty about the company being in 26 countries and the diverse product set—there are opportunities in quite a lot of places,” Horton adds.

Cyber stands out as a fast-developing area. “QBE, when I joined, had a cyber book that was working pretty well, but we are looking to grow it, join it up more from a global perspective.”

A similar strategy applies to the group’s reinsurance arm. “QBE Re has been about 10% of our premiums. I’d like it to be slightly larger than that—growing it in a balanced way.”

QBE’s US operations, once a focus of remediation, are also ready to pivot. “Our US business has been in heavy remediation for a year or two or three. Now we have the US in a good place. We have this opportunity looking at things we can grow.”

The heavy lifting appears to be paying off. Horton says: “2024 was an excellent year for the company. It was a relatively highly catastrophic year, and we came under our catastrophe allowance, despite bearing a reasonable-sized loss in New Caledonia…It was the first time the company had hit its plan since 2016.”

Balance and opportunity

Horton is keenly aware of the need to manage growth without compromising QBE’s balance sheet.

“What we’ve been doing is trying to dampen down the volatility of old,” he says. “Once you’ve got the portfolio in good balance, then you can look at how you grow it without putting it out of balance.”

On pricing, he is pragmatic. “Almost everything we’ve got is rate adequacy at this point in time. It looks as though, in certain areas, it’s going to dial back, but there are a number of areas that aren’t.”

Asked about the prospect of M&A, Horton is clear that organic growth is preferable, and benefits from the kind of stable platform he wants to continue to build out.

“Buying companies is tough to do, especially on the underwriting side. We’d rather grow organically,” says Horton.

His confidence is underpinned by QBE’s geographical mix. “We’ve got about 25–30% of our business in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands; about 35–40% international, based out of London; and about 35% in North America…We have a better geographic balance than almost any other insurer in the world.”

Horton also highlights progress on bringing the organisation closer together, something that matters for a product such as cyber insurance.

“There’s an initiative called Bring the Enterprise Together, which I’ve personally sponsored,” he says.

He lists several initiatives, including portfolio transfers that have helped focus efforts on the future. “We’ve set up product committees, and knowledge sharing has been a major breakthrough,” he adds.

The role of AI and facilitation

QBE is also investing cautiously in artificial intelligence (AI), Horton explains, harnessing the insurers riches of data. He’s keen to learn more about AI’s opportunities.

“AI is really good at summarising, looking for things within unstructured data,” he says.

“We’ve launched a cyber co-pilot, which is looking at submissions coming in and assessing whether they are in line with what we would like to underwrite. That’s increased the productivity of our cyber team—and now we want to scale it.”

But Horton is mindful of the hype. “AI is something I need to continue to learn about. I was likening it to being in the fog. Someone tells me something exciting, and then throws me back into the fog,” he says.

Keeping with the focus on scalability, Horton is optimistic about the potential for facilitation and algorithmic underwriting in the London market.

“We write just over a billion dollars in facilities. Some have been around for more than a decade. Generally, they’ve worked out well. Our costs are lower to run the facilities,” he says.

Still, he sees limits. “It’s hard to imagine [facilities] being more than 25-30% of the market. There’s got to be a balance between the facilitation and the open market underwriting.”

As for Lloyd’s, with change at the top in 2025 – including a new chair, CEO and chief financial officer – Horton supports a steady hand on the tiller.

“They’ve done a good job—focused on performance, on making the market more efficient, and on bringing more people into the market to make it more substantial. It’s more of the same, with an opportunity to build on what’s gone before.”