Best of Artemis, week ending 23rd March 2014

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 23rd March 2014, on catastrophe bonds, reinsurance capital and related risk transfer topics, from the last seven days on Artemis. To ensure you never miss a thing  subscribe to the weekly Artemis email newsletter updates.

Top ten most viewed articles on Artemis.bm, week ending 23rd March 2014:

1. Warren Buffett: U.S. catastrophe rates too low for Berkshire Hathaway
   Warren Buffett, chairman of diversified investment, insurance and reinsurance firm Berkshire Hathaway, said yesterday that his firm has pulled back from U.S. catastrophe reinsurance business as the rates are no longer attractive.
2. Tokio Marine: Issuing Japan quake indemnity cat bond a challenge
   Japanese insurer Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire’s reinsurance buyer expressed his pleasure at the completion of Kizuna Re II Ltd., but also acknowledged the difficulty faced in issuing commercial Japanese earthquake risk as an indemnity catastrophe bond.
3. CATCo targets traditional reinsurance investments with new Aquilo Fund
   Specialist reinsurance linked asset manager CATCo Investment Management has launched a new investment fund called Aquilo which will target traditional reinsurance, rather than the retrocession market which is more typical of the firm.
4. Florida Hurricane Cat Fund $1.5 billion reinsurance plans stalled
   According to a report, the proposal seeking approval for a $1.5 billion private reinsurance purchase by the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund has stalled in the legislature and could be running out of time ahead of the 2014 hurricane season.
5. Zenkyoren sets the tone for April reinsurance renewal pricing
   According to a report Zenkyoren of Japan has set the tone for the upcoming April 1st Asia-Pacific reinsurance renewals as it added a whopping $3 billion to its catastrophe reinsurance program at reduced risk adjusted pricing.
6. Munich Re: Reinsurance market competitive as capital spills over
   The world’s largest reinsurance firm, Munich Re, expects conditions in the global reinsurance market will remain competitive in 2014. It also acknowledges the spreading influence of alternative capital as it spills outside of pure catastrophe business.
7. Collateralized reinsurer Oxbridge Re seeks NASDAQ IPO listing
   A Cayman Islands based fully-collateralized reinsurance company, Oxbridge Re, is seeking to raise up to $29.75m from an initial public offering of shares on the NASDAQ, offering investors another interesting way to access reinsurance linked returns.
8. JLT Towers Re expands into Bermuda with ILW, property and retro
   Reinsurance broker JLT Towers Re, which formed after JLT acquired the reinsurance brokerage business of Towers Watson last year, is launching its newly combined operations in Bermuda today.
9. Depopulation of Citizens continues, commercial policies could be next
   Efforts to shrink Florida’s Citizens Property Insurance continue to see the property insurer of last resorts homeowner policy base moving back into the private insurance market and the next step could be to depopulate commercial policies as well.
10. Merna Re V cat bond prices down, offers lowest quake yield ever
    The price guidance on U.S. primary insurer State Farm’s $300m Merna Re V Ltd. U.S. earthquake catastrophe bond has dropped to the low-end of the marketed range, Artemis understands, making it the lowest coupon for a U.S. quake cat bond ever.

This is by no means every article published on Artemis during the last week, just the most popular, some of which were published over a week ago. There were 20 new articles published in the last week. To ensure you always stay up to date with Artemis and never miss a story subscribe to our weekly email newsletter which is delivered every Wednesday.

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