Hardy Underwriting, the Lloyd’s of London insurer, will on Monday announce a new Bahrain-based joint venture to write reinsurance in the Middle East and North Africa as it looks to expand and diversify its business.

Hardy will own its joint venture equally with Arab Insurance Group (Arig), with the risk backed more or less equally by both Arig and Hardy’s Lloyd’s syndicate 382, which had £250m of underwriting capacity for this year. The company said it anticipated the majority of the risk would be shared on a 50-50 basis.