12 month cat bond & ILS issuance to pass $10 billion for first time

The catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market is set to hit a major milestone before the end of June, with record issuance of over $10 billion coming to market in a single twelve month period, according to data in the Artemis Deal Directory.

With the upsizing of the Alamo Re Ltd. catastrophe bond today, once that deal is completed which is slated for the 26th June the trailing twelve months catastrophe bond and ILS issuance recorded in the Deal Directory will hit just over $10.05 billion.

This is a real milestone for the ILS market, beating the next highest twelve months of issuance by a clear margin. The twelve months up to Alamo Re’s completion will have seen an amazing 46 transactions added to the Deal Directory, the highest in a twelve month period by a significant margin.

According to Artemis’ data this is the highest issuance volume in a single 12 month period in the cat bond and ILS markets history. We can’t see another consecutive 12 months in our Deal Directory that gets close to $10 billion.

Our numbers do include some privately issued cat bonds and cat bond lites, as well as the Vitality medical benefit linked ILS deal in January of this year. Details and deal types aside, this is still a record twelve month period for the catastrophe bond market, clearly demonstrating the extremely strong issuance conditions that sponsors have been enjoying of late as well as the continued strong investor appetite for new catastrophe risk.

Second quarter issuance is now set to be over $4.57 billion, another record for the market, the highest single quarter of issuance ever witnessed. 2014 issuance to date, including Alamo Re, now stands at an impressive $6.157 billion, the highest half-year issuance since the cat bond market began.

A record year 2014 certainly seems to be in the catastrophe bond markets future, with transactions recorded in the Artemis Deal Directory already adding up to $6.157 billion, the Queen Street X Re cat bond that launched today to be added and a whole six months of issuance still to come. $8 billion plus seems guaranteed, a $10 billion year a distinct possibility given the level of issuance seen in the trailing 12 months to date and further growth of the outstanding catastrophe bond and ILS market is a certainty as issuance has now far outpaced maturities in 2014 already.

For details of every catastrophe bond transaction issued since the start of the market in the late 1990′s visit the Artemis Deal Directory.

Q1 2014 Catastrophe Bond & ILS Market Report – A Record Quarter

Don’t forget to download your copy of our Q1 2014 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 2014, looking at the new risk capital issued and the composition of the transactions completed during Q1 2014. Download your copy here.

Look out for our Q2 2014 report in early July!