The Fidelis Partnership’s Pine Walk platform has launched a specialty underwriting agency that will write surety and credit risk insurance, initially focused on Australia, Asia-Pacific and Latin America.

London-headquartered Arenite Specialty, which plans to build teams in key markets, will be led by Teji Gobran, most recently MD at surety underwriter BILD and previously Volante Global MD.

Jarbas Coimbra, previously at Arch Reinsurance Brazil, becomes head of surety, and Stephen Olman is head of credit. Mr Olman was previously Helia’s director of reinsurance and structured transactions. 

“Collectively, our team has deep knowledge of the Australian, Latin American and Asia-Pacific markets and we see huge potential for this new offering,” Mr Gobran said.

Pine Walk provides custom underwriting, operational and regulatory services for managing general agencies, leveraging the relationships and capacity of parent company The Fidelis Partnership (TFP).

“Arenite aligns with our strategy to incubate high-quality MGAs that bring valuable diversity by both product and geography,” Pine Walk COO Nigel Lee said.

“Surety and structured credit are products that TFP has a deep understanding of and we’re excited by the opportunity Arenite has to build out a unique offering for Australia, Latin America and Asia-Pacific.”

Arenite becomes the 13th underwriting agency launched by Pine Walk, he says.