Mirabilis’s long-term strategy to be the preferred provider of specialist engineering insurance in South Africa, the rest of Africa and selected international markets has made it a trustworthy brand.

Engineering underwriting manager within Santam Specialist Solutions, Mirabilis, has provided engineering reinsurance on the African continent since 2006 and globally since 2014. This diversity has ensured sustainability that other local engineering insurers have not benefited from, especially as reliance on the South African market can be fraught with difficulties. Low investor sentiment may be a global challenge, but it has been exacerbated by the South African disasters of rioting, looting, fires, floods, excessive hailstorms, the declining economy, and the extreme and debilitating loadshedding regime.

Although the government highlights infrastructure development as an imperative, the projects are slow to manifest. And it is not that the projects don’t exist; in fact, the construction industry has been pleasantly surprised by the creativity of the mid-market tier construction industry looking for new opportunities.

“If these movements hadn’t happened, the industry would be in a far more difficult space right now,” says Mirabilis CEO Curt Meyer. “But in this environment, resilience and creativity are neither the only nor the most important factors that ensure profitability. Anyone can issue a policy, but not many can pay the claims.” And that, it seems, is what ensures survival and profitability in disruptive times.

Meticulous Underwriting

Mirabilis is discerning about the projects it underwrites. Meyer explains that this means asking the difficult questions upfront so that Mirabilis can insure a project correctly. 

“These questions may appear burdensome to the potential client and sometimes sways the choice of an underwriter to a competitor. This may be good in the short term, but the policyholder may find a claim is not valid based on issues that were not factored into the policy.”

An example is the extent to which environmental, social and governance (ESG) challenges have come into play in South Africa and other countries on the continent. 

“Those include understanding the political environment that could pose a problem for our clients in the future, and the ever-changing legislative environment,” says Mirabilis Head of Africa Shane Graham, who works alongside Meyer. 

“We ensure we are kept well-informed of all macro and micro-economic disruptors through our closely connected network that operates across 32 African nations. This information is crucial to the success of our brokers, and to ensure that we keep risk prudent," he explains.

“These challenges include understanding the political environment that could pose a problem for our clients in the future, and the ever-
changing legislative environment. Keeping risk prudent has not impacted Mirabilis’s commitment to support South Africa’s growth strategy. “If anything, we have further entrenched our service provision because we are confident that the South African construction industry will recover. We partner with 1 600 brokers, providing them with support and technical knowledge, which enable them to successfully insure their clients’ projects.”

Lean and Agile Business

Meyer and Graham expect the engineering insurance portfolio to grow, given the recovery of the construction industry, which was one of the most affected sectors during the COVID pandemic. However, engineering projects can take considerable time to materialise and involve multiple parties and stages of development that influence how the insurance is structured, with risk often spread across multiple insurers.

That said, Meyer stresses that, regardless of Mirabilis’s global footprint, South Africa remains its home base and heart of its operations.

“Without this base and the support of our South African brokers we would not have been able to launch successfully outside of South Africa’s borders. We are committed to remaining a lean and agile South African organisation. This message is delivered in all our markets, be that in India, Middle East, Egypt, Bangladesh, Morocco or Cape Town,” he concludes.