Best of Artemis, week ending 13th January 2013

The year has started with a number of launches of new and renewed third-party capital reinsurance vehicles. We’ve also seen the first new ILS deal begin marketing in the guise of Vitality Re IV Ltd. (Series 2013-1) from Aetna. As always, you can read every market news story and article on the Artemis news blog, subscribe to our weekly email newsletter update and for your convenience here are the ten most popular news articles from the last seven days on Artemis.

Top ten most viewed articles on Artemis.bm, week ending 13th January 2013:

1. Reported estimates of Sandy re/insured losses pass $17 billion: Fitch
   Fitch Ratings has published a report looking at the total amount of reported insured and reinsured loss estimates for hurricane Sandy damage that have been announced by insurers and reinsurers since the storm struck. The total has passed $17 billion and is heading for the $20 billion mark. We list all the reported losses to date in this article.
2. Reinsurers managing insurance-linked funds for investors is the future
   The fully-collateralized reinsurance space has been on the up in recent years, but two of the world’s largest brokers see fund management as an area that will increasingly see reinsurers getting involved.
3. Harambee Re from Argo is first sidecar to write both insurance and reinsurance
   International insurer and reinsurer Argo Group has announced the launch of a sidecar with a difference. Harambee Re 2013-1 Ltd., a Bermuda domiciled sidecar vehicle, will provide capacity for the 2013 accident year.
4. Itochu Corporation get into reinsurance at Lloyd’s with Antares
   One of the leading Japanese trading and business investment firms operating globally, Itochu Corporation, are getting into reinsurance underwriting by investing in Antares Syndicate 1274 managed by Antares Managing Agency Ltd at Lloyd’s of London.
5. JLT Re hires new Partner with focus on reinsurance, retro and ILW’s
   Reinsurance broking firm JLT Re, a subsidiary of the Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group, have announced a new hire, Paul Thyer, who will focus on property reinsurance, property retrocession and industry-loss warranties (ILW’s).
6. $16.5 billion catastrophe bond market at year-end 2012 a record, says Aon Benfield
   The catastrophe bond market finished 2012 on a high reaching a record for the total volume of cat bonds outstanding at the end of the year of just over $16.5 billion, according to reinsurance broker Aon Benfield.
7. Vitality Re IV Ltd. medical benefit insurance-linked securities being marketed for Aetna
   The first insurance-linked security transaction to come to market in 2013 is the fourth in life insurer Aetna Life Insurance Company’s series of Vitality Re medical benefit linked securitization deals.
8. Peak Re points to Asia as a growth area for reinsurance-linked investing
   The launch of new reinsurer Peak Re with $550m of capital looks set to help the gradual growth Asia as a major reinsurance market and will likely stimulate interest in the region as a destination for capital markets capacity from investors.
9. CATCo grows by $350m at 1/1, deploys over $2 billion of retrocessional reinsurance capacity
   CATCo Investment Management has seen impressive inflows of capital in the fourth quarter of 2012 with around $350m of new investments.
10. Validus raises $404.4m for new AlphaCat2013 sidecar and insurance-linked securities funds
    Bermuda based insurance and reinsurance group Validus Holdings has announced the successful raising of $404.4m of capital, largely from third-party investor sources, by its investment and asset management subsidiary AlphaCat Managers Ltd.

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This is by no means all of our articles from the last week, just the most popular among our readers. To ensure you always stay up to date with Artemis subscribe to our weekly email newsletter update.

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