Members of the UK P&I Club and the TT Club have voted to merge the two organisations into a combined mutual insurer. For the first time, it will span the full cargo supply chain, from shipowners and charterers through to ports, terminals, freight forwarders and logistics operators. The merger takes effect on February 20, 2027, subject to regulatory approvals.
The vote, confirmed at separate special general meetings on October 7 and 8, follows a member ballot that opened in September. Both clubs will keep their names and market positions.
The UK P&I Club insures more than 250 million tonnes of owned and chartered shipping. The TT Club insures 80% of the world’s shipping containers and holds an insurable interest in more than 70 of the world’s top 100 ports. The combined group will carry annual premium income of around US$750 million and free reserves of around US$888 million, and the clubs expect the merger to improve their combined ratio by about 5%.
The parent company, United Transport Mutual Limited (UTM), will provide governance, capital and shared platforms. Each club keeps its own committee, name and underwriting approach. Andrew Taylor (pictured, left) becomes chief executive of UTM, with William Beveridge (pictured, centre) succeeding Taylor as chief executive of the UK P&I Club, and Kevin King (pictured, right) remaining chief executive of the TT Club.
The merger is one half of a wider restructuring. Running alongside it is the acquisition of Thomas Miller Holdings, the management company that has run the UK P&I Club since 1885 and the TT Club since its founding in 1968. Under the Thomas Miller deal, more than 89% of Thomas Miller shareholders accepted the joint acquisition offer in July 2026. Regulatory approval is expected in the coming weeks, and UTM will also serve as the parent entity for that acquisition.
Thomas Miller has historically operated as an independent management company, with value flowing out of the clubs to a third-party manager. Bringing it into mutual ownership means that value stays within the group.
“By bringing the management business into mutual ownership, value that previously left the clubs will now be retained within the group and reinvested for members,” Taylor said.
February 20 is the P&I renewal date, and the date on which North P&I and the Standard Club merged in 2023 to form NorthStandard. That deal reduced the International Group of P&I Clubs from 13 members to 12.
The UK P&I and TT Club merger works differently. The TT Club, which insures transport and logistics operators rather than shipowners’ liabilities, is not a member of the International Group, and the UK P&I Club will keep its place in it. The number of International Group clubs is therefore unchanged. Instead of combining two P&I clubs, the deal links a P&I club with a transport and logistics mutual, extending the group’s reach along the supply chain rather than consolidating the P&I market itself.
A cargo broker placing freight forwarders’ liability with the TT Club and marine liability with the UK P&I Club has historically dealt with two separate organisations, two claims teams and two underwriting cultures, albeit managed by the same company. Under UTM, both sit within a single capital base. The clubs say member-facing service arrangements and underwriting teams will remain unchanged, and that each will continue to shape its own products and member proposition independently.
Jan Valkier, chairman of the UK P&I Club, said the merger created a group that was “genuinely different from anything else in the market.” Morten Engelstoft, chairman of the TT Club, described it as a natural evolution of more than 50 years of working side by side.
Niels Smedegaard, who has served on the boards of both clubs, has been appointed chairman of UTM. Valkier and Engelstoft will also sit on the UTM board.
