Best of Artemis, week ending 17th May 2015

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 17th May 2015, covering catastrophe bonds, ILS, reinsurance capital and related risk transfer topics. 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 17th May 2015:

1. EXOR increases offer for PartnerRe, becomes largest shareholder
   EXOR, the Italian investment firm backed by the Agnelli family, has increased its offer to buy PartnerRe by 5.8%, raising it to $137.50 per share, valuing PartnerRe at $6.8 billion. EXOR has also become the largest shareholder in PartnerRe, buying 9.32% of the reinsurance firm’s shares. Shareholders now appear to hold the key to PartnerRe’s future.

2. “Substantial” El Niño event forecast, likely to impact re/insurance
   The Australian Bureau of Meteorology’s confirmed yesterday that El Niño threshold levels have been reached in the tropical Pacific ocean for the first time since March 2010 and that it foresees a “substantial” event, which will likely impact insurance and reinsurance players.

3. Willis Re launches $400m casualty catastrophe reinsurance facility
   Reinsurance broker Willis Re has this morning announced the launch of a new global syndicated reinsurance facility, aiming to provide cedents with broad protection against casualty catastrophe events related to liability portfolios.

4. XL Catlin to expand alternative reinsurance capital abilities: Hendrick
   Alternative reinsurance capital and insurance-linked securities (ILS) is to feature as one of five key principles to be followed by the reinsurance division at newly joined XL Catlin, according to CEO of reinsurance Greg Hendrick.

5. AIG back with $200m Compass Re II U.S. wind parametric cat bond
   Global insurance firm American International Group (AIG) is back in the catastrophe bond market with a Compass Re II Ltd. (Series 2015-1) deal, seeking U.S. wind reinsurance protection on a parametric trigger basis over a six month term.

6. Re/insurers see rates down about 10% at June 1st renewal: KBW
   Insurance and reinsurance companies in Bermuda expect that June 1st renewal rates will be down around 10% year-on-year, but many also suggest that stabilisation in pricing is becoming evident, according to analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.

7. 2015 catastrophe bond and ILS issuance passes $4 billion
   The completion of the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association’s (TWIA) latest use of catastrophe bonds for reinsurance, the $700m Alamo Re Ltd. (Series 2015-1), has taken issuance of new cat bonds and insurance securitizations past the $4 billion mark for the first time in 2015.

8. Sub-prime comparison not fair to catastrophe bonds: John Seo, Fermat
   The recent comparisons that have been made between catastrophe bonds and sub-prime, or toxic, mortgage-backed securities, are unfair to the cat bond market, where to date the bundling of non-transparent risks is not an issue, according to John Seo.

9. Lines between reinsurance and ILS greying more and more: Hilary Paul, LGT ILS
   The line between traditional and alternative sources of reinsurance capital has “been greying more and more” in recent months, with the trend predicted to accelerate over the next five years, according to Hilary Paul of LGT ILS Partners.

10. TWIA hits 100-year funding level thanks to Alamo Re cat bonds: Polak
    The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) is delighted with the response to its latest catastrophe bond from ILS investors and capital markets, helping it to secure an additional $700m of reinsurance capacity from Alamo Re Ltd. (Series 2015-1).

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 27 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.

Get listed in our MarketView directory of professionals.

View the current breakdown of the market in our range of charts, allowing you to analyse the cat bond market.

Artemis’ Q1 2015 Catastrophe Bond & ILS Market Report – The biggest first quarter ever

We’ve now published our Q1 2015 catastrophe bond & ILS market report.

This report reviews the catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market at the end of the first-quarter of 2015, looking at the new risk capital issued and the composition of the cat bond & ILS transactions completed during Q1 2015.

Download your copy here.