Cell Captives

Guardrisk’s cell structure offers clients an equity participation in a licensed insurer through a shareholding agreement. The structure is likened to that of a honeycomb with separate classes of shares with each class comprising a business cell. Each cell is represented by a separate class of ordinary shares with specified dividend rights. Clients subscribe for these shares and the client, as cell owner, is afforded the risk financing and conventional insurance capabilities enjoyed by a licensed insurer.

Cell captives are a valuable risk management tool, providing companies with a vehicle through which to write their own insurance risks. Risks which are typically insured in a cell captive are excess buy down layers or risks which are uninsured or uneconomical to insure in the conventional insurance market. Risk identification is based on a sound understanding of the client’s business and its associated risk spectrum.

Cell captives allow participants to access the conventional insurance and reinsurance markets directly and cost-effectively to cover the excess and catastrophe exposures.

Cell captives are a useful corporate governance and risk management tool as they provide organisations with a single vehicle in which to insure all enterprise related risks.

Why choose Guardrisk to open a cell captive?

• It is easy to do business with Guardrisk – our entrepreneurial spirit drives us to tailor-make innovative solutions that suit your business’ insurance needs
• The quality and experience of our people and resources make Guardrisk the natural choice for anyone seeking a tailored risk solution.
• Guardrisk pioneered the cell captive concept in 1993 and is South Africa’s largest cell captive insurer, which means that clients benefit from our collective experience and market position.
• As industry leaders, Guardrisk helps shape the industry in which it operates, through professional and robust engagement with all industry stakeholders.
• Leading international ratings agency, Moody’s Investor Service, has rated three companies in the Guardrisk Group. Guardrisk Insurance and Guardrisk Life are both rated Baa3 on the global scale and Aaa.za on the national scale; and Guardrisk International is rated Baa3 on the global scale.
• Our international footprint (in Gibraltar and Mauritius) offers clients a solution for offshore risks.
• Guardrisk is a subsidiary of the JSE-listed MMI Holdings and prides itself on its independence and ability to offer meaningful insurance solutions for its intermediary and retail clients.

Key Benefits

• Centralises the risk management function in group structures and allows for the sharing of risk within the group.
• Reduction in the cost of conventional insurance.
• Allows companies to retain risk and share in the profit potential of an integrated risk management programme.
• Access to direct insurance and reinsurance markets (local and international)
• A selection of investment instruments to enhance returns and increase capacity.
• Flexibility to create a customised insurance programme to respond to client-specific risk exposures.
• Access to a comprehensive corporate risk financing tool.
• Budgeting certainty in that the cost of risk can be determined more accurately.
• Actuarial input on appropriate cell risk retention.