Cartesian owned Iris Re lists shares to support new capital raise

Iris Re, an industry loss warranty (ILW) and parametric focused collateralised insurance and reinsurance company, has issued a new class of shares and listed them on the Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX), as a mechanism to enable new investors to participate in its returns.

Bermuda-based Iris Reinsurance Ltd. was launched in 2009, sponsored by private equity firm Cartesian Capital Group and is an affiliate of and managed by Cartesian’s insurance-linked investments unit Cartesian Re.

Iris Reinsurance Ltd., on behalf of a segregated account named Iris Re ILS, listed 1,001 insurance-linked non-voting, redeemable preferred shares, each of which has a par-value of $0.001 each. The shares were listed on the BSX as Section V – Insurance Related Securities.

The listing on the BSX would enable the shares to have an element of liquidity and transferability, we’d imagine, in a similar manner to some of the collateralised reinsurance sidecar shares offered to ILS and insurance-linked investors today.

Iris Re provides institutional investors with a vehicle to access the returns of parametric or index-based catastrophe reinsurance contracts, with the listing of shares providing the entry point for new allocations of capital to the vehicle.

Since its inception through to 2015 Iris Re has delivered annualised underwriting returns above 12%, with returns ranging from 11% to 14% each year.

The risk-adjusted returns are delivered through the underwriting of both parametric and index-based insurance and reinsurance contracts, primarily structured as industry loss warranties (ILW’s).

Charles Mixon, Director of Iris Re, commented; “Listing shares of Iris Re on the Bermuda Stock Exchange allows qualified investors to access our strategy and is a useful complement to our fund offerings. We believe that an investment in Iris Re can add both diversification and attractive risk-adjusted returns to an investment portfolio. We credit the BSX for its strong support of this innovative offering.”

Appleby (Bermuda) Limited and Clarien BSX Services Ltd advised Iris Re on the stock exchange listing.