Best of Artemis, week ending 30th December 2012

We hope you all had a good Christmas break and that this last weekly ‘best of’ post of 2012 helps you catch up on any news you may have missed. We’d like to wish you all the best for what looks set to be a busy 2013 for the market! 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 30th December 2012:

1. With Alterra buy Markel get into collateralized reinsurance and third-party capital
   One of the larger re/insurance industry mergers in recent years is on the cards for 2013 after Markel Corporation and Alterra Capital Holdings announced that their boards have unanimously approved a merger agreement. Under the merger terms Alterra is valued as worth approximately $3.13 billion.
2. Zurich’s Lakeside Re III catastrophe bond upsizes to $270m and completes
   Another catastrophe bond has completed in 2012 and once again it has upsized before the deal closed. Insurance group Zurich’s latest cat bond transaction Lakeside Re III Ltd., the third in the Lakeside series of deals, completed in the last week and upsized by $45m, from the $225m it was initially marketed at, to close at $270m.
3. Capital markets should gain further market share in reinsurance: Swiss Re
   Alternative reinsurance tools which enable transformation of risk to capital market interests should continue to gain market share, but will likely remain a niche product, within the global reinsurance market, said Swiss Re at their recent insurance-linked securities media event.
4. ILS funds almost recover October Sandy losses in November
   The average return made by insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds, as measured by the Eurekahedge ILS Advisers Index, in November was a very acceptable 0.21% again demonstrating the ability of the market to recover quickly after a catastrophe event of the magnitude of hurricane Sandy.
5. Annuity reinsurance; a new avenue for the convergence market to explore?
   A speculative look at how the convergence and collateralized reinsurance markets could look to annuity reinsurance as a new sector where their risk and return appetites could be satisfied while offering a new investment opportunity to capital sources.
6. $65 billion insured losses from catastrophes and man-made disasters in 2012
   Reinsurer Swiss Re has released preliminary estimates from its sigma division for the amount of insured losses that insurers and reinsurers will have to pay from both man-made and natural disasters in 2012.
7. Swiss Re in early redemption of Vita Capital IV mortality cat bond notes
   Reinsurer Swiss Re has chosen to utilise an early redemption clause to redeem two tranches of mortality catastrophe bond notes issued through its Vita Capital IV Ltd. vehicle.
8. Vega Capital 2010-1 reserve account increases, Sandy the only potential negative
   The Vega Capital Ltd. Series 2010-1 catastrophe bond transaction which was issued on behalf of sponsoring reinsurer Swiss Re in December 2010 has again been said to have an increasingly positive outlook by ratings agency Moody’s.
9. Cat bond and ILS spreads are approaching historic lows: Swiss Re
   Spreads of new cat bond transactions have been tightening throughout the year and this is a trend that reinsurer Swiss Re said would likely continue into 2013 at their recent insurance-linked securities media event.
10. Allied World to acquire minority stake in Aeolus Capital Management
    More signs of the current attraction that third-party capital has for re/insurers as re/insurance group Allied World Assurance Company Holdings, AG announced its plans to grow its Allied World Financial Services platform by acquiring a minority stake in Aeolus Capital Management Ltd.

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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