Archive for June, 2012

Investment manager GAM have announced that they are going to be operating a waiting list on new subscriptions to their GAM Star Cat Bond fund due to capacity constraints in the sector. The UCITS-compliant fund which launched in Q4 last year has apparently been seeing strong investor demand and it seems that this demand has […]

Just when we thought the primary market for catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities issuance was getting quiet a transaction comes along in the form of reinsurer Munich Re’s latest Queen Street deal. Queen Street VI Re Ltd. has just begun marketing and with this, their sixth Queen Street cat bond Munich Re are seeking cover […]

Towers Watson Capital Markets (TWCM) have announced the completion of a second Oak Leaf Re Ltd. privately placed catastrophe bond on behalf of a Florida homeowner’s specialty insurance company. Last July TWCM arrange an $11.95m private placement  of cat bond notes through a Series 2011-1 issuance from the Oak Leaf Re Ltd. special purpose insurer (Bermuda […]

The risk transfer provided by a catastrophe bond or insurance-linked security transaction can be looked at as a form of insurance or reinsurance depending on who the issuer or sponsor is. That’s something the market has been aware of since day one and the reason that this market has grown around insurers and reinsurers who […]

This short article is a call to all catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities issuers, sponsors and those tentatively looking at the possibility of becoming either in the near future. If you’re thinking about issuing a diversifying peril cat bond, or a life, health, mortality or any other risk-linked security (except U.S. hurricane related), now is […]

Tropical storm Debby has proved to be a tricky storm to forecast accurately and continues the unusual start to the 2012 Atlantic tropical storm season. Debby became the fourth named tropical storm on Sunday and as we wrote at the time there was a divergence of opinion in forecast models but the consensus was that […]

At the end of April we wrote about the upcoming launch of a new insurance-linked securities fund which was being launched by Dexion Capital as a closed-end investment company and would be listed on the London Stock Exchange. DCG Iris Limited has been actively fund-raising since the start of May to attract capital to its […]

One of the largest events in the financial market calendar is the GAIM Conference which was held at its usual location in Monaco last week. The event which covers the hedge fund and alternative investment management sector has increasingly seen a presence from those involved in the reinsurance and insurance-linked investment space, including investors and […]

Whether risk management practices such as hedging actually have an effect on firm value of those engaging in such practices is highly debated in wider economic circles. Those involved in hedging or risk management sectors such as reinsurance can of course see the value in a well placed hedge, but for others who are less […]

Despite us being almost a month into the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season, when traditionally outstanding catastrophe bonds are seeing declining price returns, the cat bond price return index has continued to rise further recovering some of the ground lost earlier this year. Here’s our fortnightly look at the Swiss Re Cat Bond Performance Indices (our […]