AUB Group has launched commercial strata agency Rubix Underwriting as it looks to strengthen its agencies offering.

The listed intermediary group’s agencies division achieved strong growth in 2023-24, recording more than $1 billion in premium. Its underlying profit before tax rose 57.9% to $55.4 million, according to AUB’s full-year results announcement yesterday.

CEO and MD Michael Emmett says the division’s results mean it is making “significant strides” towards its medium-term target margin of 45%. In 2023-24 it achieved an earnings before interest and taxes margin of 42.6%.

“All components within the agency division performed very well,” he said.

“Our strata portfolio is also performing strongly, with existing strata agencies SUU and Longitude now complemented by the newly launched Rubix Underwriting, a commercial strata agency.”

Lloyd’s is the capacity provider for Rubix. The binder agreement was signed this week and AUB expects to roll out the product to select brokers in the coming weeks.

AUB has been adding to its agencies offering in the past few years. Most recently it bought a 70% stake in Pacific Indemnity, an Australian financial lines underwriting agency.

“The addition of Pacific Indemnity to our specialty portfolio significantly enhances our scale and capabilities, opening new avenues for growth,” Mr Emmett said. “While it is early days, we are pleased to see this new business continuing to perform well.”

At yesterday’s earnings call, Mr Emmett said within the Australian broking business, premium rates rose about 6%. The increase is based on comparable data using a same client, same cover, same insurer metric within the portfolio.

“On this basis, average premium rates have risen by approximately 7% per annum over the past five years,” he said. “We are very conscious of the impact on clients of premium rate increases. To mitigate this, we have reduced our effective commission earned rates and pass these savings on to clients.”

As reported earlier this week, AUB also announced an expansion of its UK retail broking operations, with the acquisition of an 80% stake in Movo Group.

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