Best of Artemis, week ending 1st January 2017

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 1st January 2017, 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.

Ten most viewed articles on Artemis.bm, week ending 1st January 2017:

1. Gator Re investors face loss as claims exceed attachment point
   Qualifying reported claims covered by the Gator Re Ltd. catastrophe bond transaction have now passed the attachment point, Artemis has learned, with the latest loss report for the cat bond revealing an impact of over $195 million at the end of November.

2. 2017 to be more challenging than 2016 in re/insurance: Kroll
   Despite the fact that rate declines are expected to slow down at the January 2017 renewals and beyond, for the insurance and reinsurance market 2017 is likely to be even more challenging than the year we’ve just seen, according to Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA).

3. Reinsurance prices fall at 1/1 renewal, rates near technical levels: JLT Re
   Reinsurance price declines continued at the key January 1st 2017 renewals, albeit at a moderating rate, as rates in the global industry get closer to technical levels, below which profitability is eroded completely, according to broker JLT Re.

4. $200m Leo Re Ltd. collateralised reinsurance sidecar listed
   Leo Re Ltd., a recently registered Bermuda special purpose insurer, has listed a $200 million tranche of notes, which likely represent a new collateralised reinsurance sidecar transaction from a currently unknown sponsor.

5. ILS a “historically significant diversifier” from financial markets: Taylor, Nephila
   The once niche insurance-linked securities (ILS) asset class has matured into an influential part of the global reinsurance industry, helped by its solid performance during financial market turmoil and it’s ability to efficiently allocate capital. In a recent paper, Nephila Capital’s Laura Taylor highlighted such benefits of the space.

6. If tested re/insurance fundamentals could deteriorate: A.M. Best
   The potential for risk accumulation has never been greater for global insurers and reinsurers, and with reserves diminishing further and broader market pressures expected to persist, A.M. Best warns that industry fundamentals could start to weaken.

7. Cat bond fund performance rises in 2016, highlighted by Oppenheimer
   The Oppenheimer Master Event-Linked Bond Fund, LLC, a catastrophe bond focused investment strategy managed by Caleb Wong at OppenheimerFunds, has beaten its 2015 performance according to its latest annual report, returning 5.5% for the year to September 30th 2016.

8. Horse Capital I could open ILS market to new opportunities: Dubinsky, WCMA
   Capital market investors were “well placed” to support the recent Horse Capital I DAC motor third-party liability loss ratio ILS, catastrophe bond like transaction, and its successful completion could open the ILS market to new opportunities, according to Bill Dubinsky of WCMA.

9. Pioneer ILS Interval Fund hits $161.7m, returns 11.23% despite 2016 cats
   The Pioneer ILS Interval Fund, U.S. mutual fund manager Pioneer Investments insurance-linked securities and reinsurance linked investment fund, continued to grow in the last quarter reaching $161.7 million in size, while returning an impressive 11.23% in its last reported year despite catastrophe event impacts.

10. Limestone Re notes from Liberty Mutual sidecar listed on the BSX
    As part of the recent $160 million Limestone Re Ltd. multi-year collateralised reinsurance sidecar-like transaction from insurer Liberty Mutual $85 million of participating notes have been listed on the Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX).

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 9 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’ Q3 2016 Catastrophe Bond & ILS Market Report – Weather risk returns, private deals, market growth

We’ve now published our Q3 2016 catastrophe bond & ILS market report.

This report reviews the catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market at the end of the third-quarter of 2016, looking at the new risk capital issued and the composition of transactions completed during Q2 2016.

Q3 saw $1.087 billion of risk capital issued from eight transactions, making it the third most active Q3 of the last decade in terms of deal volume, and one of the busiest in the market’s history in terms of number of deals. Strong investor appetite for cat bond and ILS investment saw the outstanding market size increase from the $25.174 billion recorded at the end of Q2, to $25.449 billion.

Download your copy here.