CATCo’s latest fundraising takes it to roughly $1 billion assets under management

CATCo’s latest fundraising takes it to roughly $1 billion assets under management CATCo Investment Management have announced today that they have grown their CATCo Reinsurance Opportunities Fund Ltd. to $338m after another round of fundraising. CATCo have received new commitments from institutional investors of $125m and are issuing new C Shares to accommodate the new investment inflow.

They anticipate that the new C Shares will be listed and admitted for trading on the Specialist Fund Market of the London Stock Exchange and the Bermuda Stock Exchange on the 16th December 2011.

CATCo have had significant success with attracting new institutional investors during their fundraising efforts in their first year of operation. Investors seem extremely attracted to the manner in which CATCo operate, write coverages and balance their portfolio of retrocessional reinsurance for diversification.

Since its formation in December 2010 CATCO Reinsurance Opportunities Fund Ltd. has raised a total of $338m, a pretty amazing figure for the end of year one. In addition to this the CATCo Reinsurance Fund Ltd. has also completed another successful placing raising more than double the funds raised by CATCo under this round of funding. It is believed that the combined assets of both funds is already approximately $1 billion.

Tony Belisle, CEO of CATCo Investment Management Ltd said; “This is the fourth fund raise that CATCo has successfully completed within 12 months and reflects the confidence institutional investors have in CATCo. CATCo has proven its strength despite all of the catastrophes that have occurred around the globe over the last year. The ability to react quickly and take advantage of price changes in the reinsurance sector has both accelerated CATCo’s progress and demonstrated the strength and specialist knowledge of the team.”

Commenting on this announcement, Anthony Taylor, Chairman of CATCo said; “This recent fund raise will allow CATCo to continue to seek to capitalise on opportunities in the reinsurance sector and, as demonstrated by our dividend statement last week, continue to seek attractive shareholder returns”

Closing this fundraising at this time of year would ordinarily mean CATCo has a great opportunity (and the funds to support it) to write significant new business in the upcoming January renewal season. But CATCo seems to be ahead of the reinsurance market. According to Jason Bibb, COO & CFO of CATCo Investment Management Ltd., CATCo fully expect to have its retrocessional capacity deployed by early December for the January 2012 renewal season.