Archive for July, 2013

The first broadly marketed 144A catastrophe bond from Bermuda based reinsurer RenaissanceRe has now completed successfully, providing the reinsurer with a $150m source of multi-year retrocessional U.S. hurricane and earthquake reinsurance protection. Mona Lisa Re Ltd. (Series 2013-2) has now settled, received its full rating and listed in Bermuda.

Swiss based insurance-linked securities (ILS) and reinsurance-linked investment manager LGT Insurance-Linked Strategies has added another $400m of assets by winning ILS investment mandates from three major European pension funds. It’s now a year since LGT acquired the ILS business from Clariden Leu and the team has grown its assets under management by 30% in that time.

Yesterday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enacted a rule as part of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, or JOBS Act, which lifts the ban on general solicitation and marketing for investment funds and Rule 144A securities offerings. The change means that these once private offerings can now be broadly marketed as long […]

The third-party capital and reinsurance-linked fund management arm of Bermuda based reinsurer Montpelier Re, Blue Capital Management, has published a portfolio update on the progress made by its flagship listed catastrophe reinsurance and retrocessional linked investment fund, the Blue Capital Global Reinsurance Fund Limited.

American International Group (AIG) latest catastrophe bond deal, Tradewynd Re Ltd. (Series 2013-1), has now been successfully completed. The insurer recognises the unique nature of the this cat bond in the market, due to its broad trigger and diverse underlying book of business, and said that with Tradewynd Re it is pleased to further advance […]

Both the price return and total return of the outstanding catastrophe bond market have been depressed in recent weeks by the onset of seasonality and a glut of supply in the secondary catastrophe bond market. The indices we track tell the story of a gradual slide in both metrics as the U.S. hurricane season began […]

The largest ever UK pension insurance buyout transaction has been recently completed by specialist insurer Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC). The transaction saw PIC insure the full £1.5 billion of liabilities associated with the 20,000 members of the EMI Group Pension Fund.

Hiscox Re, the reinsurance division of Bermuda headquartered insurance and reinsurance group Hiscox, has announced a number of key appointments this morning as it continues its efforts to consolidate and grow the reinsurance side of its business. One of those key appointments is a new role of Director of Insurance Linked Securities (ILS).

Bermuda headquartered reinsurance and third-party reinsurance capital management group Validus Holdings has revealed its initial estimate of the negative financial impact from losses created by the recent severe flooding in central Europe and Germany. It transpires that the floods have caused Validus a small loss within its AlphaCat ILS and collateralized reinsurance division.

Details have emerged about the assets under management at two reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds managed by New York based investment firm Stone Ridge Asset Management. Stone Ridge, launched in 2012 by former Magnatar Capital co-head of portfolio management Ross Stevens, has two reinsurance-linked investment funds with total assets reported at over $766 million.