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9th Edition

Insurance Asset Management Conference

18 - 20 September 2019
Amsterdam, Netherlands 

Can you please tell us a little bit about your professional background and your current area of expertise?

I started my professional career almost 20 years ago and spent most of my focus on investment management of insurance portfolios of global insurance companies, specializing mainly in strategic and tactical asset allocation. I currently work at PZU, which is a financial conglomerate operating in Poland, Ukraine and the Baltics and consists of life, non-life and health insurance companies, asset management company, pension company and banks. With its market capitalisation at around USD 9 billion, we are the largest insurance company in CEE. The company is traded on the Warsaw and Frankfurt stock exchanges and is rated by S&P with an A- rating. I am currently employed as a CIO responsible for management of its insurance portfolios.  

Do you think the end of a credit cycle will significantly impact investment portfolios in the insurance industry?

I don’t think that a significant impact will be seen as many insurance companies are and have been positioning themselves to cope with the potential end of the credit cycle. We observe lots of diversification efforts, search for new asset classes or investments into previously untapped geographies. The potential end of the credit cycle will test some of the alternative asset classes but I don’t see a change in the overall direction. Solvency II and other internal capital and risk management processes are typically designed to cope with any market environment (or at least with a large spectrum of various types of market environments).

In order to diversify your portfolios, are you currently focusing on alternative assets? If so, what types of alternative assets?

PZU has been over the past several years a strong player in alternative asset classes which was mainly caused by two factors – search for a higher yield and utilization of the investment possibilities in CE. The company has sizeable investments into private debt assets, infrastructure deals, real estate and others. We also made a lot of efforts to diversify the portfolio geographically and started tapping investment opportunities not available in Poland and CE (which could be considered as “alternative” from our local point of view). We are also initiating efforts to utilize our expertise with internal management of Central European alternative assets and are taking steps to commercialize this activity to start managing third party assets.

In any case, I believe that general market shift into alternative investments will continue and assets currently considered as alternative will over time become mainstream. At the same time, further search for other asset classes will continue. As mentioned above, the potential end of the credit cycle might be a test for some of the asset classes but  I believe that the overall trend will be intact.

What would you like to achieve by attending the Marcus Evans 9th Edition of Insurance Asset Management?

To see how other insurance companies are coping with the probable late stage of the credit cycle accompanied by prevailing low yield environment.

An interview with:

Robert KubinChief Investment Officer at PZU

A decade on from the financial crisis, the market has entered very interesting times as the industry moves towards the end of the credit cycle and a number of topics on the political agenda take precedence. With the end of the credit cycle in sight and geopolitical risk on the rise, firms will want to take a safer stance with investment strategy. Firms also have the added complexity to meet yield targets under the persistently low rate environment and Solvency II rules and in order to do this they have turned to investing in alternative assets. Alternative assets have become increasingly desirable with their ability to give higher returns, but this comes at the price of higher risk.

With all this in mind, this marcus evans conference will look at how to build an insurance portfolio that accommodates market changes as the industry moves towards the end of a credit cycle and prepares for geopolitical risk.

To view the Conference Agenda, click HERE! 

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About the conference

We would be delighted to provide you with more information on the conference agenda.  Please fill in your details below and we will be in touch.

Robert is an experienced investment professional with more than 15 years of international experience managing insurance portfolios and mutual funds. Robert has detailed knowledge of the investment aspects of annuity, with profits and unit linked product ranges. Robert lived in the UK, US, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and India. Robert is results oriented, proactive, communicative, having deep knowledge of investment management, insurance and mutual fund company management, leadership and mentoring.

To view the Conference Agenda, click HERE! 

For all enquiries regarding speaking, sponsoring and attending this conference contact:

Yiota Andreou
Email: Yiotaa@marcusevanscy.com
Telephone: +357 22849 404
Fax: +357 22 849 394