About Us:
History
The Early Years
Endurance launched operations at the end of 2001 after raising approximately $1.2 billion from a diverse and well known group of investors. To help accelerate Endurance’s Bermuda business, it acquired LaSalle Re’s Property-Catastrophe reinsurance business in May 2002. Under Ken LeStrange’s leadership, the firm continued to grow, building its management team with key experienced hires and expanding its geographic reach through the formation of UK and US operating subsidiaries.
In February 2003, Endurance raised $202.3m in a successful Initial Public Offering under the ticker symbol “ENH.” Several months later, Endurance augmented its U.S. platform with the purchase of the majority of HartRe’s reinsurance business, as well as the addition of approximately 20 key staff members from HartRe.
Expansion Into Insurance and Additional Specialty Lines
Endurance continued to expand the reinsurance business into additional specialty lines such as marine, personal accident and agriculture and, in September 2004, acquired a surety product line through the acquisition of a majority of XL Re’s America Surety business. In 2004, Endurance retained a team to lead and manage a new US insurance lines operation, focused on key areas of specialization within the Property and Casualty insurance arena.
By the end of 2006, Endurance had grown its capital to approximately $2.7 billion despite the challenges posed by the hurricane season of 2005. We continued to grow our business both organically and with the acquisition in December 2007 of ARMtech Insurance Services, a specialty US crop insurer.
Continued Strengthening of Our Business
Despite the global financial crisis that weakened many respected companies in the financial services industry, we delivered strong 2008 financial results and maintained our capital base, ending the year with total capital of $2.7 billion including shareholders’ equity of $2.2 billion.
We continued to maintain our financial strength ratings of "A" (Excellent) from A.M. Best (XV size category) and "A" (strong) from Standard and Poor's on our major operating subsidiaries. In 2008, Standard & Poor’s upgraded our Enterprise Risk Management rating from Strong to Excellent, the highest ranking provided. Endurance is one of only eight property and casualty companies in Bermuda and the United States to receive this rating, a significant validation of our approach to managing risk.
We expanded the global reach of our reinsurance segment in 2008 with branches in Zurich and Singapore, improving our local market knowledge and gaining greater access to our clients and brokers in Europe and Asia.
After record financial results in 2009, Kenneth J. LeStrange retired from the positions of Chief Executive Officer and President. David Cash succeeded Mr. LeStrange as Endurance’s Chief Executive Officer and William M. Jewett succeeded Mr. LeStrange as President. Both Mr. Cash and Mr. Jewett have been senior officers at Endurance from its early days, and each played instrumental roles in building Endurance into the company it is today. Mr. LeStrange is continuing as Chairman of the Board through March 2011.