Archive for August, 2013

Bermuda based reinsurance firm RenaissanceRe has begun managing third-party investor capital in its Medici insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund for the first time. The RenaissanceRe Medici Fund Ltd. has existed since 2009 but has only invested RenRe’s own capital in catastrophe bonds until now.

Bermuda based reinsurance firm Everest Re has yet to reach its initial fundraising target for its sidecar, Mt. Logan Re, which it launched at the start of the year. Currently the reinsurer says that it is about half way to its initial target of $250m of capital, which included $50m of its own funds.

The first catastrophe bond to be sponsored by AXIS Capital Holdings Limited, the Bermuda based global insurance and reinsurance group, has become the latest to see its pricing drop to the lowest end of an already reduced guidance range. The Northshore Re Limited (Series 2013-1) cat bond will offer investors a coupon of 7.25%.

The successful issuance of the first storm surge catastrophe bond in the insurance-linked securities markets history, MetroCat Re Ltd. (Series 2013-1), highlights the ability of capital market investors to strongly support bespoke ILS solutions, according to bookrunner, joint structuring agent and lead manager on the deal, GC Securities.

Alleghany Corporation, the insurance and reinsurance holding company with property and casualty subsidiaries including reinsurer Transatlantic Re, has purchased a stake in alternative investments asset manager Ares Management LLC, a partnership which positions them to serve the converging reinsurance and capital markets.

Lancashire Holdings, the global provider of specialty insurance and reinsurance products and third-party reinsurance capital management firm, has revealed further details about its Kinesis Capital Management initiative. Kinesis Capital Management was recently revealed as the brand name for Lancashire’s third-party capital efforts.

Greenlight Re, the Cayman Islands domiciled reinsurance firm, backed by fund manager David Einhorn and his Greenlight Capital, Inc. hedge fund which acts as an investment manager for Greenlight Re, is not immune from reinsurance market pricing conditions created by inflows of non-traditional capital.

RMS has launched a new version of its North Atlantic hurricane model suite, version 13.0. The new version will give users the ability to fully analyse and quantify the risks from hurricane driven storm surge risks and the model has already been used in a catastrophe bond deal, the first storm surge cat bond MetroCat […]

The latest insurance-linked securities market report from Aon Benfield Securities, the capital markets, catastrophe bond and ILS focused arm of reinsurance broker Aon Benfield, shows that the volume of issuance of new catastrophe bond deals in the first-half of 2013 was the highest seen for six years.