Catastrophe bonds and insurance-linked securities news

Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, the non-profit insurer of last resort for residential and commercial property policies in the state, has raised its upper target for its new catastrophe bond to as much as $275 million of collateralized named storm reinsurance from the Bayou Re Ltd. (Series 2024-1) issuance.

SageSure, the specialist independent managing general underwriter of property catastrophe exposed insurance, is “grateful for the continued support” it receives from the capital markets as it announces the closing of its second catastrophe bond transaction of the year, the $130 million Gateway Re Ltd. (Series 2024-2).

After its government expressed its desire to attract more insurance-linked securities (ILS) sponsors to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, highlighting a commitment to develop its ILS market, executives from the Insurance Authority have made filling protection gaps a key focus of its ILS ambition.

Swiss Re Capital Markets (SRCM) observed an increase in the number of secondary market trades in Q4 of 2023, indicating an “encouraging sign” that the market has fully-recovered from the capacity constraints and loss uncertainty it had faced following Hurricane Ian.

Banque Bonhôte & Cie, a Swiss private bank, investment firm and wealth manager, has announced the launch of a new environmental, social and governance (ESG) focused fund strategy that will incorporate catastrophe bonds as one of its allocations.

In another move that demonstrates catastrophe bond investors are not softening price across every opportunity, American Coastal Insurance Company has now successfully secured the upsized $200 million Armor Re II Ltd. (Series 2024-1) Florida named storm cat bond, but with the risk spread finalised within the initial range of price guidance.

The arrival of the world’s first cloud outage catastrophe bond was viewed very positively, and provides investors with a new avenue into the cyber insurance-linked securities (ILS) space, according to Henning Ludolphs, Managing Director Retrocession and Capital Markets at Hannover Re.

As anticipated, the Government of Mexico has returned to secure Pacific named storm protection from another new tranche of World Bank and IBRD facilitated catastrophe bond notes, as the country looks to finalise its latest capital markets source of parametric disaster insurance protection.

In a relatively rare occurrence for the catastrophe bond market today, the price guidance for the latest cat bond issuance for Zenkyoren, the Japanese National Mutual Insurance Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives, the $150 million Nakama Re Pte. Ltd. (Series 2024-1), has narrowed towards the upper-end of guidance.

Global reinsurance firm Hannover Re has successfully sponsored a $13.75 million Cumulus Re (Series 2024-1) parametric cloud outage catastrophe bond that was privately issued and placed using the firm’s Kaith Re Ltd. vehicle, with modelling of the cyber risks undertaken by Parametrix.