Saudi Reinsurance Company (Saudi Re) has completed its acquisition of a 22.5% equity stake in AdA Risk Holding Co Limited, giving Saudi Arabia's only specialist reinsurer a formal foothold in the entity that sits behind Lloyd's Syndicate 2024.
The deal, worth £8.95 million (around $12 million), was funded entirely from Saudi Re's own capital resources, according to the reinsurer's own press release announcing the transaction. That release confirmed regulatory approval from Saudi Arabia's Insurance Authority; this week's announcement confirms the transaction has now closed.
AdA Risk Holding is the London-registered company behind AdA Syndicate 2024, which underwrites energy, marine and energy liability, ports and terminals physical damage, cargo and freight, aviation war, aviation all-risks and specie business. The syndicate is managed day-to-day by Probitas Managing Agency, having graduated from a Special Purpose Arrangement to full syndicate status for the 2026 year of account - a progression Insurance Business UK tracked when AdA first confirmed its move to full Lloyd's syndicate status in 2025.
Both companies have described the investment as a natural extension of an existing relationship rather than a new entry into the market. That framing has some history behind it: Probitas Managing Agency's CEO at the time, Ash Bathia, thanked Saudi Re back in 2021 as Probitas's "core equity partner" when the agency first picked up its regulatory approvals, as Insurance Business UK reported at the time. Saudi Re's stake in AdA specifically builds on that longer-standing tie to the wider Probitas group.
AdA itself was founded in 2023 by Natasha Jodrell, James Grainger and Paddy Riordan, with Jodrell as chief executive and Grainger as chief underwriting officer. Announcing the deal, Jodrell said the partnership would help AdA "continue to expand our underwriting platform and execute on our long-term strategy at Lloyd's."
Ahmed Al-Jabr, Saudi Re's chief executive, called it "an exciting new chapter for Saudi Re," pointing to AdA's management team and describing the investment as building on the reinsurer's past success in the London market.
Howden Capital Markets & Advisory acted as exclusive financial adviser to AdA, with Clyde & Co as its legal adviser. Saudi Re was advised by PwC and Willkie Farr & Gallagher. Saudi Re has said the financial impact of the transaction - its equity-accounted share of AdA's results - will begin showing up in its accounts from the third quarter of 2026.
The timing lines up with a busier-than-usual period for new capacity at Lloyd's, with a wave of new syndicates having launched across 2025 and into 2026. Saudi Re's move also fits a broader pattern of Gulf-based insurers and sovereign-linked investors building closer ties to the London market as a route into internationally rated, diversified underwriting capacity, rather than trying to replicate that capability at home.
For Saudi Re, a 22.5% minority stake is a relatively low-cost way to get exposure to Lloyd's aviation, marine and energy underwriting expertise without taking on the capital commitment or regulatory overhead of setting up its own managing agency.
Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) is Saudi Re's largest shareholder, though not a majority owner. Insurance Business UK reported on the underlying capital arrangement in late 2024, when Saudi Re secured Capital Market Authority approval for a share issuance to the PIF that lifted its capital base from SAR 891 million to more than SAR 1.158 billion and took the PIF's stake to 23.08%.
The reinsurer's most recent full-year results, covering 2025, showed revenue up 48% to SAR 1.67 billion, though net profit after Zakat fell 71% to SAR 140 million - a drop Saudi Re attributed to one-off capital gains of SAR 365.9 million booked in the prior year that weren't repeated.
