Best of Artemis, week ending 21st July 2013

The catastrophe bond and insurance-linked security market hit a milestone recently as the size of the market hit $18 billion for the first time ever. As always, you can read every market news story and article here on the Artemis news blog, subscribe to our weekly email newsletter updates 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 21st July 2013:

1. First storm surge catastrophe bond, MetroCat Re Ltd. 2013-1, launches
   Another new sponsor is coming to the catastrophe bond market with a new peril, in the form of the first storm surge catastrophe bond, MetroCat Re Ltd. (Series 2013-1).
2. Still early days for pension fund allocations to ILS and reinsurance
   Pension funds allocating capital to insurance-linked securities (ILS) and reinsurance-linked investment strategies, as a way to find sources of yield with low-correlation to broader financial markets, is becoming a mainstream topic. However the numbers show that this trend has a long way to go
3. 76% of ILS assets at Nephila Capital come from pension funds
   Nephila Capital currently reports its total assets under management as just over $7.89 billion. According to a report on pension fund’s growing appetites for alternative assets, $6.02 billion, or just over 76% of Nephila’s assets under management are sourced from pension fund allocations.
4. Blackstone selects Nephila Capital as a sub-advisor for new mutual fund
   Nephila Capital, the largest asset manager in the space with just over $7.89 billion of insurance-linked assets under management at the firm, has been selected as one of the sub-advisors for a new mutual multi-manager fund offering from Blackstone Alternative Asset Management.
5. Northshore Re Limited, first catastrophe bond from AXIS, launches
   Bermuda based provider of global specialty insurance and reinsurance products, AXIS Capital Holdings Ltd., is sponsoring what we believe to be its first catastrophe bond transaction with the launch of the latest deal to hit the market, Northshore Re Limited (Series 2013-1).
6. Mariah Re catastrophe bond payout goes to litigation
   The story of the Mariah Re Ltd. catastrophe bonds is not over yet. The two severe thunderstorm cat bond issuances by the Mariah Re Ltd. special purpose vehicle were both stricken by one of  the worst U.S. tornado seasons on record in 2011, causing both series of cat bond notes issued by Mariah Re to default and investors to lose their principal in full. Now the payout is being disputed and a law suit has been filed.
7. It’s not just ILS pricing that’s decoupled from traditional reinsurance…
   It’s not just ILS, cat bonds and collateralized third-party backed reinsurance capacity pricing that has finally decoupled from traditional reinsurance in recent months. It looks like primary insurance rates have decoupled too.
8. 2013 cat bond and ILS issuance passes $5Bn, over $18Bn outstanding
   There seems to be no slowing down of the momentum that the market for insurance-linked securities and catastrophe bonds has generated in recent months and issuance continues apace into July. Based on figures in our Deal Directory, including two cat bonds still marketing, 2013 ILS issuance has now passed $5 billion and the overall size of the outstanding cat bond market has hit $18 billion for the first time.
9. Third Point Re files for IPO, to raise up to $250m
   Third Point Re, the Bermuda domiciled reinsurer established with the backing of Thid Point LLC hedge fund owner Dan Loeb, has now filed the paperwork for its expected initial public offering (IPO).
10. Investors capitalise on secondary cat bond price gains in 2013
    It has become apparent that a number of investors have used this years primary and secondary cat bond market trends to capitalise and profit by offloading positions in certain deals.

This is by no means every article published on Artemis during the last week, just the most popular among our readers. To ensure you always stay up to date with Artemis subscribe to our weekly email newsletter update.

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