LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Early-stage financial services investor BP Marsh & Partners announced on Monday that its investee company, Nexus Underwriting Management, has launched a new financial lines division in Chicago under its newly-formed entity, Nexus Specialty.

The AIM-traded firm said Nexus Specialty's Financial Lines division had A-rated underwriting capacity, provided by Profession Solutions Insurance Company (PSIC), which was rated 'A' by AM Best.

It said the new financial lLines division would be led by Stacy Paquet, who it described as a "highly regarded leader" in the management liability sector in the United States.

It said Paquet had more than 15 years of experience in that sector of the insurance market, and was previously president of management liability at OneBeacon Insurance Group, based in Chicago.

She had "extensive" distribution relationships, which would build on Nexus' successful, long-term presence in the financial lines space in the UK, BP Marsh explained.

The company holds an aggregate shareholding of 17.7% in Nexus, and had been invested since August 2014.

It described Nexus as one of the largest independently-owned managing general agencies in the UK insurance market, budgeting to write more than £345m of gross written premiums across various specialty lines in the 2020 financial year, including trade credit, marine and aviation insurance.

Nexus has eight overseas offices across Europe, America and Asia.

"We have ambitious plans to grow in the specialty insurance market in the US and are committed to replicating the success Nexus Group has already had in the UK and Europe," said Nexus Specialty's president and chief executive officer Adam Kembrooke.

"As a group, we were founded as a financial lines MGA and already have a tremendous reputation and track record in this sector.

"I am delighted to have Stacy join us and to have such a great carrier partner in PSIC to continue building on that success in the US."

Dan Topping, BP Marsh's chief investment officer and nominee director on the board of Nexus, added that Marsh was "pleased" that Nexus had further expanded its financial lines product offering with the new addition in North America.

"[This] further emphasises Nexus as a global specialty lines MGA."

At 1100 GMT, shares in BP Marsh & Partners were down 1.13% at 262p.

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