Ruxley's John Winter: The asbestos run-off king

When John Winter established Ruxley Ventures, a company that specialises in acquiring and running off US asbestos, pollution and health hazard (APH) claims, in 2001, he was going against the prevailing trends in the legacy sector on at least three counts. To begin with, he set up Ruxley as an investor in run-off portfolios rather than as a third-party provider of run-off management services to the industry, which back then characterised the activities of most companies present in the sector. Second, Ruxley focused almost exclusively on APH liabilities, which, given the role of APH in nearly bankrupting the Lloyd’s market only a few years earlier, were regarded as highly challenging, particularly for a company that was putting its own capital at risk. Third, Ruxley set out to settle these liabilities as quickly as possible; typically within four years, depending on the size of the portfolio. Again, this approach was very different from the way other run-off companies were dealing with APH liabilities at the time.