Al Wathba Insurance Becomes the First UAE Insurer to Access Lloyd's Through a London Bridge 2 Protected Cell, Backing a Portfolio of Over $100 Million of Premium

Al Wathba Insurance has taken a route into Lloyd's of London that no insurer in the United Arab Emirates had used before. The transaction was reported in December 2025. Reinsurance News published the news on December 22, 2025 under the headline "Al Wathba Insurance secures access to Lloyd's of London", Artemis published its account on December 22 and updated it on December 23, and Business Insurance reported it the same day, citing Middle East Insurance Review, which had run the story on December 21 under the headline "AWNIC is first UAE insurer to access Lloyd's via London Bridge 2 protected cell structure."

The facts, as reported, are as follows. Al Wathba, which is based in Abu Dhabi and Dubai and trades on the Abu Dhabi exchange as AWNIC, completed its first capital allocation to Lloyd's through London Bridge 2, a vehicle sponsored by Lloyd's. It invested in Cell 27. Artemis reported that Vice Chairman H.E. Rashed Darwish Al Ketbi and chief financial officer Muralikrishnan R visited Lloyd's to complete the investment formally. Lockton Re structured the transaction and curated the portfolio of Lloyd's syndicates that receive the capital, with Gerard Monayer, Lockton Re's chief executive for the Middle East and North Africa, and James Mackay, head of Lloyd's capital, named in the coverage. The size of Al Wathba's investment was not disclosed. What was disclosed is that, starting in financial year 2026, the company expects to receive returns from an underlying portfolio of more than $100 million of global property and casualty premium.

Chief executive Shukri Almheiri said: "This milestone investment will provide Al Wathba Insurance with a significant competitive edge." He added that the company will use Lloyd's risk solutions and benefit from the investment returns the Lloyd's market has historically delivered. The company called the move a "pivotal moment in its growth journey" and described it as part of its strategy to diversify revenue and push into international business. Lockton Re's Mackay praised Al Wathba's speed and decision-making during the syndicate allocation process.

To understand what Al Wathba bought, it helps to look at the vehicle. A protected cell company is a single legal entity divided into separate cells, each of which holds its own assets and liabilities. Lloyd's own overview of London Bridge 2 describes it as the second multi-arrangement insurance special purpose vehicle that Lloyd's has sponsored, a "transformer" that turns insurance and reinsurance risk written at Lloyd's into equity or debt securities offered to institutional investors. It is an onshore company incorporated in England under the Risk Transformation Regulations 2017, authorised and supervised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority. It is licensed to reinsure business underwritten at Lloyd's and to issue securities that fully fund its reinsurance obligations, and the overview describes it as tax transparent.

Each transaction runs through a segregated cell, which also issues the securities. Cell liabilities are ring-fenced for insolvency purposes, and each transaction is limited recourse, meaning the aggregate liability is capped at the cell's funded assets. Investors' rights are subordinated, under a priority of payments, to the party being reinsured. The company is owned by an orphan trust, with an independent board drawn from Lloyd's, Artex and Intertrust, and an underwriting committee approves transactions and the creation of cells, subject to quarterly board ratification. Users of the vehicle can be corporate members and Lloyd's syndicates, and capital providers are qualified investors such as institutional investors and private equity funds.

The overview describes two main structures. For members, the vehicle can provide reinsurance of a member's Funds at Lloyd's, using a whole-account quota share of up to 100% or an excess-of-loss cover, with capital assessed on a Solvency II basis. For syndicates, it can provide whole-account or variable quota share or excess-of-loss reinsurance, including catastrophe bonds, with no line-of-business restriction and a defined risk period typically aligned with existing annual reinsurance. The document says London Bridge 2 had issued over US$750 million of securities to institutional investors across 13 cells, including the first 144A catastrophe bond, though the document does not date that figure and it should be read as an earlier snapshot, since Cell 27 shows that the numbering has moved on. Case studies in the overview include US$171.5 million of preference shares issued through four cells in February 2023 for Ariel Re to support the 2023 underwriting of Syndicate 1910, and a US$100 million catastrophe bond for Beazley in December 2023. Neither of those involved Al Wathba. Lloyd's presents the vehicle as a more diversified source of capital for profitable growth as part of its "Future at Lloyd's" strategy.

For a UAE insurer, the attraction is access and diversification. Al Wathba earns premiums mainly from regional business, and an allocation to a portfolio of global property and casualty risks written by several Lloyd's syndicates gives it exposure that is not tied to the Gulf economy. The structure also means it does not have to set up a syndicate or hold a Lloyd's licence itself, and the limited-recourse design caps its downside to what it has put in. The reports do not say how much that is, and they do not describe fees, collateral arrangements, syndicate names or regulatory approvals on the UAE side, so those cannot be assessed.

What to watch next is whether other Gulf insurers follow, and how the portfolio performs once the financial year 2026 returns are reported. Property and casualty returns depend on catastrophe losses and on the pricing cycle, and rates in the Lloyd's market have been falling in 2026, as the market's own half-year results show. Al Wathba's own results disclosures are the place where investors should look for the actual return.