Best of Artemis, week ending 11th February 2018

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 11th February 2018, 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 11th February 2018:

1. Swiss Re / SoftBank, XL / Allianz – scale, relevance & transformation
   Two very interesting (in their own ways) insurance and reinsurance deal rumours were revealed last week, as news broke that Japanese technology conglomerate SoftBank is considering taking a large stake in Swiss Re, and that Allianz is looking at a deal with Bermudian giant XL Group.

2. ILS market value demonstrated, positioned well for future: ILS NYC 2018 speakers
   The impressive reaction of the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market to 2017 catastrophe events shouldn’t be a surprise and the marketplace has an opportunity to do even more in the future, according to speakers and attendees at Artemis’ second conference in New York.

3. World Bank hails investor appetite for “historic” $1.36bn cat bond
   The World Bank has hailed the “very strong demand” for its recently completed issuance of $1.36 billion of parametric earthquake catastrophe bonds, to the benefit of Pacific Alliance member countries Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, calling the transaction “historic” and highlighting some records it has set.

4. XL upsizes alternative capital use to $3bn, to support front-end growth
   XL Group, the parent to the XL Catlin insurance and reinsurance brand, has considerably increased the amount of alternative capital it uses at the renewals in order to reduce its catastrophe exposures and optimise its book, by making the most of efficient capacity.

5. Zenkyoren returns for $250m Nakama Re 2018 earthquake cat bond
   Giant Japanese reinsurance buyer Zenkyoren is returning to the catastrophe bond market for another opportunity to tap the capital markets for a source of collateralized earthquake reinsurance protection, with a currently $250 million Nakama Re Ltd. (Series 2018-1) transaction, sources said.

6. Prudential in $100m allocation to Securis post-event ILS fund strategy
   The Prudential Portfolio Management Group (PPMG), an asset allocation unit of global financial services group Prudential plc, made a $100 million allocation to a post-event ILS fund strategy managed by Securis Investment Partners at the end of last year.

7. Mt. Logan Re grows 18%, starts 2018 with $1.028 billion of assets
   Mt. Logan Re Ltd., the collateralized reinsurance, sidecar-like investment vehicle of global reinsurer Everest Re, grew by 18% over the year to January 1st 2018, reaching $1.028 billion of assets in time for the key renewals.

8. ILS fund-raising & growth a factor at renewals: Hannover Re
   The growth of ILS markets at January 1st 2018 was a factor that meant rate momentum decelerated, as they offered more capacity than a year earlier despite the major losses suffered and subsequent trapping of capital, according to reinsurance giant Hannover Re.

9. Lloyd’s should embrace ILS to secure its future: Tokio Marine Kiln CUO
   Insurance, reinsurance companies and syndicates trading in the Lloyd’s of London market should leverage ILS capital and insurance-linked securities (ILS) as just one of a range of sources of capital, in order to secure their futures, according to Paul Culham, Group Chief Underwriting Officer at Tokio Marine Kiln.

10. Munich Re bulks up at renewals, despite only slight price rises
    After five or more years of discussion about the state of reinsurance pricing, particularly in the United States and other catastrophe exposed areas, a “slight improvement in reinsurance prices” has been sufficient to encourage giant Munich Re to bulk up on underwriting business at the recent renewals.

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.

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