Best of Artemis, week ending 18th November 2012

The insurance industry loss estimate from hurricane and post-tropical storm Sandy rose again last week. Still, the impact on reinsurers, reinsurance-linked funds and any catastrophe bonds is unclear. As always, you can read every market news story and article on the Artemis news blog, subscribe to our weekly email newsletter update and for your convenience here are the ten most popular news articles from the last seven days on Artemis.

Top ten most viewed articles on Artemis.bm, week ending 18th November 2012:

1. As Sandy loss estimates rise to $25B, what does this mean for cat bonds?
   As is to be expected after a natural catastrophe event with the size and reach of hurricane and post-tropical storm Sandy, the estimates of insurance industry losses keep rising. This is typical of a complex, never seen in recent times, catastrophe event.
2. CATCo commutes Costa Concordia reinsurance losses
   CATCo Investment Management, the specialist Bermuda based reinsurance-linked investment business that manages around $2 billion of retrocessional reinsurance portfolios for its clients, has commuted a portion of its losses from the Costa Concordia marine disaster according to a stock exchange announcement.
3. Sandy impact on October ILS fund returns appears varied
   Normally by this stage of the month we have a pretty good idea how insurance-linked security and catastrophe bond funds have performed in the prior month, but this time Sandy has muddied the waters somewhat.
4. Sandy makes reinsurance-linked investments more attractive for Polar Capital
   For some institutional and professional investors the occurrence of hurricane Sandy at this time, and the large insurance and reinsurance industry loss that the event will no doubt cause, has the effect of making the sector an even more attractive place to invest.
5. Catastrophe bond prices recover some Sandy losses last week
   After the big decline in secondary market catastrophe bond prices seen in the week after hurricane Sandy made landfall we thought it would be good to catch up on the Swiss Re Cat Bond Performance Indices again to see how the last seven days had affected them.
6. First Solvency II compliant catastrophe bond SPRV established in Ireland
   The completion of French reinsurer SCOR’s latest catastrophe bond deal, Atlas Reinsurance VII Limited, last week was it turns out a first for the market, according to financial law firm Walkers Ireland.
7. Stone Ridge Asset Management to launch two reinsurance-linked funds
   A new investment management firm, formed this year and headquartered in New York, is launching two reinsurance-linked investment funds targeting investors looking for either a medium yield or high yield approach to reinsurance investing.
8. Twelve Capital adds two senior portfolio and operations hires
   Swiss based Twelve Capital, who operate a number of investment funds and opportunities in insurance-linked securities, catastrophe bonds, private ILS and subordinated insurance bonds, have added two new hires to help strengthen its portfolio risk analysis capabilities and operations management.
9. Montpelier Re said to be planning a London listed reinsurance investment fund
   There are interesting rumours floating around the market today after the Bermuda Royal Gazette said in this article that reinsurer Montpelier Re is planning to launch a London listed retrocessional reinsurance investment fund.
10. Residential Re 2011 notes downgraded on greater attachment probability due to Sandy
    In a move which was to be expected, rating agency Standard & Poor’s have downgraded one aggregate class of notes issued in USAA’s Residential Reinsurance 2011 Ltd. (Series 2011-1)  catastrophe bond transaction as a result of the qualifying losses caused by hurricane Sandy.

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