Archive for October, 2013

Ed Noonan, the CEO of Bermuda domiciled insurance, reinsurance and third-party reinsurance capital management group Validus Holdings, spoke at some length about the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market and alternative reinsurance capital during the firms recent earnings call.

The emergence of UCITS compatible catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds has helped to bring new capital into the ILS market, according to Michael Stahel, partner and portfolio manager at Swiss ILS and reinsurance-linked investment manager LGT Insurance-Linked Strategies.

Insurance-linked securities and reinsurance-linked investment manager Credit Suisse has estimated that total insured industry losses from European windstorm Christian could be in the range of $1.7 billion to $2.9 billion but does not expect the event to impact its IRIS Low Volatility Plus fund.

The completion yesterday of global specialty property casualty insurer and reinsurer Catlin’s latest catastrophe bond transaction, the $300m Galileo Re Ltd. (Series 2013-1), has taken 2013 catastrophe bond issuance to $6.54 billion, past the total seen in 2012 for the first time.

Anyone who thought that catastrophe bonds were immune from the financial market uncertainty surrounding the U.S. debt ceiling has been proven wrong as Munich Re’s Queen Street III Capital Ltd. cat bond is placed on a negative credit watch due to collateral issues triggered by the debt ceiling issue.

According to documents filed with the SEC yesterday, Stone Ridge Asset Management has set a proposed maximum aggregate offering price of $1.1 billion for its new insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund, the Stone Ridge Reinsurance Risk Premium Interval Fund.

According to reports Bermuda based reinsurer Montpelier Re will target raising $125m for its new collateralized reinsurer Blue Capital Reinsurance Holdings through its initial public offering of shares to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Bermuda reinsurer Montpelier Re’s third-party capital and reinsurance-linked investment fund management unit Blue Capital Management is showing steady progress as its premiums written increased to $35.3m and premiums earned reach $17.5m for 2013.

Reinsurance broker Willis Re is the first to issue an estimate of insured losses from this weeks European windstorm Christian for the UK. The UK was the first country to be directly hit by Christian and Willis Re estimates insured losses will be between £300m and £500m.

Swiss insurance-linked securities and catastrophe bond investment manager Plenum Investments has issued a statement saying that it does not expect losses from European windstorm Christian to reach the attachment point of any exposed catastrophe bonds.