Bermuda headquartered insurance and reinsurance group AXIS Capital Holdings has begun to deploy some of the capital it raised for its third-party reinsurance capital management unit, AXIS Re Ventures, in the last quarter.
AXIS raised its first $50m of third-party capital in the first-quarter of 2014, after beginning operations of the AXIS Re Ventures unit on the first of the year. The $50m of initial capital commitments has grown in value slightly up to the end of Q2, with non-controlling interests at the firm representing the third-party capital now listed as $52.795m.
During the firms second-quarter earnings conference call, CEO Albert Benchimol discussed the activities underway at the AXIS Re Ventures third-party capital management unit.
Benchimol said that he is proud of the team that has been built at AXIS Re Ventures which he said features some of the innovators in third-party capital. The unit is led by Ben Rubin, previously of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, who holds the role of Executive Vice President, Capital Markets at AXIS Re.
On activity to date, using the third-party capital commitments received by AXIS Re Ventures, Benchimol said that the firm has done “a lot of little things.” There have been a number of transactions booked with a number of different parties, which provide either quota shares to AXIS Re books of business or ceding business directly to AXIS Re Ventures.
The number of transactions undertaken is going to be increasing over time, explained Benchimol, the firm is exploring a lot of different ideas he said but it’s too early to discuss them.
Further development of the strategy for AXIS Re Ventures seems to be underway, with AXIS taking its time to find a spot in the market where it can, perhaps, offer something unique which leverages the value in its overall business for third-party and capital market investors.
“We’ve got the right people and the right book of business to interest alternative capital and it’s something that we will continue to work on over time. So stay tuned,” commented Benchimol.
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