Food group sets up French-based captive

Food producer Agrial is the latest company to set up a reinsurance captive in France.

The company registered the formation of Agrial Réassurance, a captive company based in Caen with capital of €5m, on 10 September.

The company was created on 9 July. Its operational status still needs approval from ACPR, France’s insurance supervisor.

The captive will work on reinsurance and retrocession deals for a range of risks at the group’s units in France and abroad, according to the registration document.

Agrial is an agribusiness cooperative that posted revenues of €7.4bn in 2023. It produces food that are staples of French supermarkets, such as Florette fresh salads and the Grand Fermage dairy range.

Originally from the Lyon region in western France, Agrial owns industrial facilities in ten countries spread across Europe, Africa and North America.

Ludovic Spiers, the managing director of Agrial, is named as chairman of the captive’s board, and Yves Jacobs, the company’s CFO and COO, as the managing director.

Group general counsel Damien Loisel is the deputy managing director, and executives Bernard Guillard and Mickael Lamy have been appointed members of the captive’s board. Grant Thornton is the reinsurance captive’s auditor.

The eventual approval of Agrial Réassurance by the ACPR would take the number of French-based captives to 19, according to latest data made available by the supervisor. At least seven other applications are under analysis, and market sources say that several companies have commissioned viability studies on the creation of reinsurance captives in France.

Two years ago, the number of French captives barely reached half a dozen. The change has been fuelled by the introduction of new accountancy and tax rules for captives in France back in June 2023. They brought the country’s rules close to those of Luxembourg’s, the jurisdiction where the French have traditionally chosen to set up their captives.