Best of Artemis, week ending 21st April 2013

The capital market backed reinsurance space has been busy again, with news of new third-party reinsurance capital management launches, catastrophe bonds upsizing and Allstate launching its Sanders Re cat bond. As always, you can read every market news story and article on the Artemis news blog, subscribe to our weekly email newsletter updates 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 21st April 2013:

1. Schroders acquires 30% of ILS investment manager Secquaero
   Asset management group Schroders is taking its first step into the insurance-linked securities and reinsurance-linked investments space after acquiring 30% of Switzerland based ILS and reinsurance investment manager Secquaero Advisors.
2. Aspen Re launches capital markets division led by Brian Tobben
   Bermuda based Aspen Re has launched a capital markets focused division aiming to capitalise on the growing alternative reinsurance market and the increasing interest being shown in reinsurance by capital markets investors.
3. ACE launches $95m Altair Re collateralized reinsurance sidecar
   ACE, one of the world’s largest multiline property casualty insurance and reinsurance groups, has announced the formation of a special purpose vehicle called Altair Re, which is capitalised to the tune of $95m and will be used as a sidecar to provide additional collateralized capacity to support its global reinsurance business.
4. Turkey earthquake cat bond Bosphorus grows again to $400m
   According to sources in the catastrophe bond community, investors have demonstrated their appetite for a true diversifying cat bond deal and have helped the Bosphorus 1 Re Ltd. parametric Turkish earthquake cat bond jump in size again to hit $400m.
5. Catastrophe bond investor returns more than double: Aon Benfield
   Showing just how different secondary cat bond market prices have been this year, Aon Benfield provide return figures for 2013 versus 2012 and it’s clear that cat bond investors have enjoyed a much better first quarter in 2013 than they did a year earlier.
6. Non-traditional reinsurance capacity will grow: David Flandro, Guy Carpenter
   We discussed the non-traditional reinsurance capacity trend, and its impact on the market, with David Flandro, Guy Carpenter’s Global Head of Business Intelligence.
7. Alternative reinsurance capital trend an opportunity for mutual insurers: Willis Re
   It’s refreshing to read a press release from reinsurance broker Willis Re discussing an opportunity this trend presents to mutual insurers which could help them capitalise on the changing reinsurance market.
8. Pelican Re 2013 catastrophe bond pricing drops, likely to upsize
   This won’t surprise anyone who has been following the catastrophe bond market in recent weeks, the latest cat bond in the market, Pelican Re Ltd. Series 2013-1, has seen its pricing drop during marketing and is likely to upsize to $140m before it closes.
9. Macquarie bearish on third-party capitals impact on reinsurance firms
   As we move towards the important mid-year reinsurance renewals, which see a large programs renewed and a focus on Florida hurricane coverage, analysts at Macquarie have warned that they see the influx of third-party capital driven reinsurance capacity as a ‘bear case’ for the reinsurance sector.
10. Nelson Re cat bond saga comes to a close as notes mature
    The catastrophe bond market can put one of its more unfortunate moments to bed now as the Nelson Re Ltd. catastrophe bond, whose fate had been uncertain due to arbitration claims, has finally been allowed to mature.

This is by no means every article published on Artemis during 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.

Please take a few minutes to respond to our simple, anonymous poll by telling us what volume of catastrophe bonds you think will be issued in 2013?

If you’re looking for details on catastrophe bond and ILS transactions our Deal Directory has more than 270 listed.

Get listed in our MarketView directory of professionals.