Philadelphia-based ACE American Insurance Co. is opening a new re-insurance branch office in Tunisia with the goal of making it an insurance hub for North Africa and the Middle East, according to a report in RoyalGazette.

“Despite recent uncertainty, we are confident about the long-term economic outlook and insurance opportunity within North Africa,” said Steve Dixon, regional managing director for ACE Middle East and North Africa. “We look forward to…continued growth of the wider region’s thriving reinsurance market.”

Re-insurance involves sharing risk by insurance companies. Part or all of the insurer’s risk is assumed by other companies in return for part of the premium paid by the insured. Re-insurance enables a client to get coverage that would be too great for any one company to assume.

In addition to underwriting re-insurance business in Tunisia, ACE plans to operate its Tunis office as a hub for servicing reinsurance needs of North Africa more widely, across a number of business lines including the growing energy, power, construction and infrastructure sectors.

ACE said it expects to formally open its operation in Tunisia later this year as a branch of ACE American Insurance Company.

It will be led by Kamal Kaabi, a senior insurance and re-insurance executive with 16 years of insurance industry experience.

Kaabi joined ACE in 2011 after working for companies such as Tunis Re, Africa Re and AIG in Tunisia, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. He is a Tunisian national.