2012 in figures for Artemis

As a new year begins here at Artemis we’re pleased to report that 2012 has been our busiest year ever. Artemis has been serving these niche reinsurance and risk transfer markets since our launch back in May 1999 making Artemis the longest-serving publication covering catastrophe bonds, insurance-linked securities, alternative reinsurance and risk transfer. Artemis has been growing strongly, alongside the market, in the last year with all our key metrics up more than 100% on 2011.

As well as blowing our own trumpet with some data on our growth, the size of our audience and the reach of our stories, we also want to highlight the top stories of 2012, the key pages of this website and the topics which drew in new visitors to join the Artemis community. We hope this proves of interest and helps to demonstrate the unique opportunity that Artemis offers to potential advertisers and sponsors looking to broaden their exposure in 2013.

Most popular stories of 2012

These are the 15 stories which received the most views on Artemis in 2012. Each of these articles was read over 1,500 times, with the most viewed clocking a very impressive 11,393 views! This list demonstrates some of the topics that mattered to the cat bond, ILS, reinsurance, weather and alternative risk transfer communities over the last year and unsurprisingly includes the catastrophe event which generated the most concern in 2012, Sandy.

1. Sandy forecast to intensify to hurricane status, hit Jamaica & Cuba
   Unsurprisingly Sandy dominates for the most read news of 2012. Hurricane Sandy was the single catastrophe event with the largest insured loss potential of the year meaning that it quickly became the biggest issue and dominated the last few months of the year.
2. Sandy threatens billion dollar losses, could threaten catastrophe bonds
   Following closely in second place is another Sandy story, this time detailing the cat bonds which were most threatened by the storm. Artemis was the first publication to detail which cat bonds were facing pricing pressure post-Sandy and we’ve consistently updated you as pricing changed and recovered.
3. EU may delay Solvency II insurance capital rules to 2015
   Solvency II continues to be an issue which always receives attention whenever we write about it. The long-awaited regime now looks set to be delayed and there are even discussions of a ‘lite’ version being rushed through to try to demonstrate progress and keep the markets onboard with the process.
4. Catastrophe bond pricing becoming decoupled from reinsurance market pricing
   The subject of cat bond pricing and its competitiveness with traditional reinsurance has been a hot topic all year. 2012 saw cat bond pricing drop leading many to say that the markets for cat bonds and traditional catastrophe reinsurance had finally converged. What this does mean is that cat bonds can now be as cost-efficient as their traditional reinsurance counterparts and with many striving to make issuance even cheaper that looks set to continue as a trend.
5. Everglades Re Ltd. upsizes to $750m, becomes largest catastrophe bond ever
   The largest cat bond of the year from first time sponsor Florida Citizens and saw them achieve the largest single tranche of cat bond cover in history. We await Citizens return to the cat bond market in 2013 with great interest!
6. NOAA raises 2012 Atlantic hurricane season forecast
   The Atlantic hurricane season is the largest seasonal threat to the reinsurance and catastrophe bond markets. every year we cover the season in detail, from the pre-season forecasts right through to the end of the year reviews. You can find our review of the 2012 season here.
7. As Sandy loss estimates rise to $25B, what does this mean for cat bonds?
   After hurricane Sandy’s impact came the steady upwards creep of insured loss estimates which quickly rose from $5 billion to $10 billion up to $25 billion and now even as high as $30 billion. Much uncertainty still exists over the eventual total, but with over $15 billion of losses now reported by insurers and reinsurers it’s clear that the final total will be towards the upper end of most estimates.
8. Greenlight results show benefit of hedge fund reinsurer strategy
   The third-party asset management approach of the hedge fund reinsurer has been in the reinsurance news regularly in the last year. Greenlight is one of the oldest proponents of the strategy which sees reinsurers underwrite business and invest the resulting premiums with a hedge fund investment strategy hoping to maximise profits while underwriting diligently to minimise losses. It’s a strategy that many others are now adopting.
9. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway bets on future values of life insurance
   Any story involving Warren Buffett and his reinsurance firm Berkshire Hathaway always receives a lot of interest. Still one of the largest suppliers of reinsurance capacity in the market this story discusses an attempt to profit from the future value of a portfolio of life insurance.
10. Eurozone breakup could impact catastrophe bonds and insurance-linked securities
    The global economic crisis and the fallout of the Eurozone debt crisis remain the largest issues which could threaten the reinsurance market. Any break-up of the Eurozone could hurt reinsurers and would also impact catastrophe bonds and ILS according to this story.
11. Aegon and Deutsche Bank in record €12 billion longevity swap deal
    The longevity risk transfer market was a little quiet in 2012 as the global financial crisis caused a slow down in deal flow. The market continues to have a lot of promise and this deal from February remains the largest to date.
12. Collateralized reinsurance capacity is disrupting the traditional market
    2012 saw the inflow of capital into the collateralized reinsurance space reach such levels that it began to disrupt the traditional reinsurance market, helping to soften rate rises, according to many observers. This trend continues and the collateralized reinsurance market continues to play a niche, but growing in importance, role.
13. Third Point Re to launch with more than $750m in capital
    The launch of Third Point Re just in time for last years renewals generated a lot of interest and was just the first of the new entrants from the hedge fund backed reinsurer space.
14. Multi-Strat Re to make it easier for hedge funds to get into reinsurance
    The hedge fund backed reinsurer strategy received another vote of confidence when Multi-Strat Re revealed their innovative approach to helping smaller hedge funds set up their own reinsurance entities to use as a new capital source from the resulting premiums.
15. Solvency II, Basel III to encourage capital into reinsurance and insurance-linked sectors
    One of the reasons that the Solvency II and Basel III regimes are of great interest to our readers is that their successful implementation is thought likely to encourage even more capital inflow into both reinsurance and ILS.

In total over the course of 2012 we published 824 articles, averaging over 15 new stories per week. This is testament to the growing profile of the sectors we cover here on Artemis and news and deal flow is directly proportional to the growing level of education among those interested in the market.

Most viewed pages

These are the pages of the Artemis.bm website which received the most views over the course of 2012.

1. Homepage
   As you’d expect the Artemis Homepage is consistently the most viewed page being the entry point to the website for many new visitors. In 2010 this page was viewed 30,000 times, that leapt to over 50,000 in 2011 and in 2012 we nearly doubled this again to over 96,000 views.
2. Deal Directory
   Our catastrophe bond and insurance-linked security Deal Directory is world-famous as the best freely accessible resource of its kind. Currently listing around 270 transactions, the deal directory received over 35,000 page views in 2011 and that jumped to over 90,000 in 2012.
3. MarketView
   The Artemis MarketView is a place where you can freely list your company or yourself under a service category that suits you. Fill out this form to get listed. We also offer premium listings if you’d like to stand out among your competitors.
4. 2012 Atlantic Hurricane Season
   This page provides updates throughout the hurricane season on every storm as it forms. A page dedicated to the 2013 hurricane season will launch at the end of April.
5. Events Calendar
   Our ever popular listing of the top conferences and events of relevance to the risk transfer and reinsurance communities. Please submit any events you are running or know of to help keep this resource up to date.

Artemis’ growing audience

We’re delighted that our readers have once again helped Artemis to maintain its position as the most read website of its kind. Once again we’ve doubled our audience over the course of 2012, taking us to a monthly audience which ranges from 18,000 to 30,000. Both pages viewed and visitors to the website doubled during 2012, with over 100,000 unique visitors over the course of the year and well in excess of 600,000 pages viewed. Artemis.bm has the largest audience of its kind on the internet. There is nowhere better to advertise your services to a market of specialist reinsurance and risk transfer buyers, sellers and investors for the sectors we cover during 2012 so get in touch or download our media pack for more details.

Our audience largely consists of C-Level execs:

• ILS and cat bond investment professionals and associated service providers
• Buyers of re/insurance, risk management and risk transfer protections
• Re/insurance brokers, underwriters and associated service providers
• Investment banks operating or interested in risk transfer
• Interested primary insurers
• Risk modelling professionals and service providers
• Weather risk management market participants
• Longevity risk market participants
• Regulators, governmental, legal professionals
• Those researching the ILS, cat bond and reinsurance-linked investment space
• Many other professional interested parties

Top referring search terms

It’s always interesting to see what search terms referred readers to Artemis over the last year. Much of our traffic finds us through search engines and Artemis is highly optimised for search which ensures our advertisers are seen by the broadest and most relevant audience possible. The top ten search terms of 2012:

1. catastrophe bonds
2. artemis.bm
3. hurricane Sandy
4. reinsurance
5. cat bonds
6. insurance linked security investing
7. solvency ii delay
8. alternative risk transfer
9. cat bond pricing
10. investing reinsurance

Where do our readers come from?

Artemis has a global audience and the top ten countries are listed below:

1. United States
2. United Kingdom
3. Bermuda
4. Canada
5. Switzerland
6. Japan
7. Germany
8. France
9. India
10. Australia

Globally our audience split is 47% U.S./Bermuda/Canada, 32% UK/Europe, 13% Asia, 4% Oceania, Africa 2%.

We hope this gives you a flavour of Artemis.bm, our readership and what proved popular during 2011. If you think we might be somewhere you’d like to advertise, or you’d like to work with us through sponsorship, please do get in touch.