← All companies ← KFY Manual KGS → ← JRVR Insurance — Property & Casualty KMPB →
KG, Kestrel Group Ltd.
An insurance business, read on its underwriting result, the combined ratio, and the float it invests, rather than an earnings multiple.
The business
What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.
Next report By 11/8 · the 10-Q for the quarter ended late September · due within 40 days of period end · has filed ~38 days after · the wire records it on arrival
The business in brief
read the 10-K →What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.
- What moves the needle
- Underwriting discipline and the float. What decides it: whether the combined ratio stays below 100% so the policies make money on their own, how large the float is against equity, and what that float earns once it is invested. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on pricing power & competition, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
- Is it a good business?
- The underwriting result is not cleanly tagged in the filings. The float runs about 4.9× equity, the leverage that magnifies both the underwriting and the investing. Whether the discipline holds through a soft market, and how the float is invested, are what the 10-K decides.
Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.
The record
Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.
Quality & stewardship
Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.
Owner’s Scorecard
Is it a good business?
- Loss ratio 71%Claims share of premiumsClaims incurred $9M ÷ premiums earned $13M
What this means
Claims as a share of premiums (the expense side was not cleanly tagged, so we show the loss ratio alone rather than a full combined ratio). Lower is better; the rest of underwriting cost sits on top of this.
- Return on equity 36%StrongNet income $47M ÷ equity $128MIndustry peers: median 2%
What this means
What it earns on shareholders' capital, the underwriting result plus what the float earns invested. Durably above the ~10% cost of equity is what compounds book value.
The float
- Float (net reserves) $176M1.4× equityLoss and claim reserves, net of reinsurance: $176M, 1.4× equity
What this means
Money held against future claims and invested in the meantime. Buffett's insight was that good underwriting makes this float cost less than nothing, a pool of other people's money the owners earn on. Measured here from net loss and claim reserves only; it excludes unearned premiums and funds held, so the true float is somewhat larger than shown. The larger it is against equity, the more that leverage works, for better or worse.
- 4.7% on the floatNet investment income $8M, 4.7% on the float
What this means
What the float and capital earned this year. This is the second engine: an insurer that breaks even on underwriting still wins if the float is large and invested well.
The cost and the reserves
- Not enough data
What this means
Needs the full float arithmetic and a cleanly tagged underwriting total; a partial figure would mislead.
- Reserve development +$148KPast reserves fell shortPrior-year development, FY2025: unfavorable (past years strengthened) · record: 0 favorable, 1 unfavorable of 1
What this means
Each year an insurer restates what its old accident years actually cost. Persistent favorable development means management reserved honestly and released the cushion; persistent unfavorable development means past profits were overstated by under-reserving — the industry's chronic sin, and the single most tell-tale line an owner can read. Signed as the company files it: negative favorable, positive unfavorable.
All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.
Management, ownership & pay
read the proxy →From the proxy: how much of the business the people running it own, and how they are paid.
- Insider ownership25.9%
The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2026 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.
Peers, Insurance — Property & Casualty
The same industry, side by side on the underwriting lens. Each column names the period it is read over, and a median resting on fewer than three years carries that count beside it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each figure against.
| Company | Revenuelatest FY, USD | Combined ratiomedian over the record | Loss ratiomedian over the record | Yield on floatmedian over the record | ROTCEmedian over the record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACICAmerican Coastal Insurance Corporation | $335M | — | 62% | 4.7% | 2% |
| AMSFAMERISAFE Inc. | $317M | 84% | 57% | 4.5% | 18% |
| NODKNI Holdings Inc. | $285M | — | 69% | 8.5% | 3% |
| AIIAmerican Integrity Insurance Group Inc. | $276M | 75%2y | 45%2y | 11.9%2y | 27%2y |
| KWYKingsway Corporation | $135M | — | 86%1y | — | — |
| MBIMBIA Inc. | $80M | — | 73%1y | — | — |
| MHLAMaiden Holdings, Ltd. | $75M | 129% | 73%4y | 5.0% | -15% |
| KGKestrel Group Ltd. | $34M | — | 71%1y | 1.3%1y | 4%2y |
| Group median | — | — | 70% | 4.8% | 3% |
The price
What a price has to assume.
What the price implies
reverse-DCFA bank / financial isn't read on an owner-earnings DCF; its economics live on the balance sheet (book value, the return earned on it, and the cash the assets throw off).
Manual order: ← KFY its page in the Manual KGS →
Industry order: ← JRVR the Insurance — Property & Casualty chapter KMPB →