Best of Artemis, week ending 12th January 2014

You can read every market news story and article here on the Artemis news blog. Subscribe to the weekly email newsletter updates to never miss a thing. For your convenience here are the ten most popular articles from the last seven days on Artemis.

Top ten most viewed articles on Artemis.bm, week ending 12th January 2014:

1. Arch, Highbridge to launch third-party capital backed Watford Re
   Bermuda-based insurance and reinsurance group Arch Capital is set to launch an interesting new, third-party capital backed venture named Watford Re alongside hedge fund and equity investment management firm Highbridge Capital.
2. Munich Re launches $63m Eden Re Ltd. collateralized sidecar
   The world’s largest reinsurer Munich Re has launched a fully-collateralized reinsurance sidecar, Artemis has learned. The sidecar, named Eden Re Ltd., is $63m in capacity and provides Munich Re with collateralized capacity to support its property catastrophe business.
3. $10 billion of new third-party reinsurance capital in 2013: Guy Carpenter
   The influence of the capital markets and alternative reinsurance capital grew in 2013, with new inflows of third-party reinsurance capital during the year at approximately $10 billion, according to data released by reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter.
4. Catastrophe bond market total return neared 11% in 2013
   The total return of the outstanding catastrophe bond market in 2013 has beaten the long-term average for the second year running, with the 2013 total return reaching a very healthy 10.9%, as measured by the Swiss Re Global Cat Bond Performance Total Return index.
5. Reinsurers stable, third-party capital could change the game: A.M. Best
   The outlook for the global reinsurance sector in 2014 remains stable, according to ratings agency A.M. Best, despite the overcapacity in the market created by well-capitalised traditional players and the influence of alternative capital.
6. Losses mount in worst European winter storm season since 1990
   The winter storm season in Europe looks set to add additional pressure to any insurers and reinsurers that are already feeling the pinch due to declining property catastrophe renewal rates, as losses from European windstorm and flooding start to mount.
7. Stone Ridge reports returns, reinsurance-linked assets over $1.3 billion
   New York based Stone Ridge Asset Management, which specialises in investments in insurance-linked securities (ILS) such as catastrophe bonds, investments in sidecars and quota shares, has grown its reinsurance-linked assets to over $1.3 billion in just over one year.
8. Reinsurance price softening broadens, overcapacity continues: Willis Re
   Overcapacity in the reinsurance market, created by the convergence of well capitalised traditional reinsurers, continued inflows of capital from third-parties and new entrants, has caused a soft buyers market across nearly all reinsurance lines at renewal, according to Willis Re.
9. Argo renews Harambee Re collateralized reinsurance sidecar for 2014
   International specialty insurance and reinsurance company Argo Group International Holdings has renewed its fully-collateralized reinsurance sidecar, Harambee Re, for the 2014 underwriting year, according to an announcement from the firm.
10. Aetna returns with Vitality Re V, its fifth medical benefit ILS transaction
    The first insurance-linked securities (ILS) or catastrophe bond type transaction to launch in 2014 sees a $200m deal from regular sponsor health insurer Aetna with Vitality Re V Ltd. (Series 2014-1), its latest medical benefit claims ratio linked ILS deal.

This is by no means every article published on Artemis during the last week, just the most popular, some of which were published more than a week ago. There were 25 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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