A new player in the Australian reinsurance market is set to open its doors as soon as it can get regulatory approval.

The New York Stock Exchange-listed Berkley Corporation’s insurance arm, Berkley Insurance Company, says it will file an application with the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) soon. It hopes to establish a reinsurance branch in Sydney, to be known as Berkley Re Australia.

Representatives of Berkley’s UK operation, WR Berkley, are in Sydney this week recruiting for a new start-up in the local underwriting market. It’s understood the two Australian operations are being set up separately.

Berkley Re Australia will focus on underwriting casualty facultative and treaty reinsurance.

The former CEO of Swiss Re-owned GE Insurance Solutions’s Asia Pacific Region, Grant Dobson, will lead the organisation as President and CEO.

His former colleague, Peter Nickerson – who resigned as CEO of subsidiary company Employers Re recently and is at present on three months’ “gardening leave”, told Sunrise Exchange News today he will also join Berkley Re.

According to its full results from last year, Berkley Insurance Company boasts net premiums of $US1.8 billion ($2.1 billion) and a net income of $US442 million ($526.6 million).