Archive for May, 2018

Specialist Lloyd’s focused insurance and reinsurance firm Beazley is the latest company to reveal a significant upsizing of its property and reinsurance underwriting portfolio, as it took advantage of the recalibration of pricing following the 2017 catastrophe events.

Watford Re, the third-party capital backed total-return reinsurance venture part-owned by Bermudian specialist re/insurer Arch Capital and asset manager Highbridge Principal Strategies, started off the year 2018 with a significant jump in premiums underwritten.

This weekend saw the quarterly results and annual shareholders meeting of Berkshire Hathaway and one of the most interesting exchanges during the question & answer session was Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger discussing over just how tough reinsurance can be these days.

The insurance and reinsurance industry is facing a total industry loss of more than US $1.5 billion following the impact of a number of outbreaks of severe convective weather, including thunderstorms, tornadoes and large hail, as the lions share of a $2.3 billion economic loss should be covered by insurance.

The board of governors of Florida’s Citizens Property Insurance Corporation has approved the purchase of a $1.42 billion reinsurance program for 2018, which is a 7% increase on the total limit of risk transfer secured last year and with more of the coverage from the capital markets via Everglades Re cat bonds.

The Board of the London-listed insurance and reinsurance linked investment strategy, the Blue Capital Alternative Income Fund, is set to make a recommendation that the fund is put into an orderly run-off, after shareholders representing 39% of the ILS fund voted not to continue the company.

Prudential Retirement and Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC) have entered into their sixth longevity reinsurance arrangement, a $1.2 billion deal covering around 7,500 pensioners, taking the total longevity risk Prudential Financial has reinsured for PIC to over $6 billion.

The debut catastrophe bond from Transatlantic Holdings, the parent to Transatlantic Reinsurance (or TransRe), is set for an increase in size, as sources said the Bowline Re Ltd. (Series 2018-1) transaction is likely to grow to $250 million, while its pricing looks set to move to the mid-point of guidance.

Florida’s Citizens Property Insurance Corporation’s latest catastrophe bond, the Everglades Re II Ltd. (Series 2018-1) transaction, has upsized before pricing to $250 million, while the coupon has now been fixed at the low-end of initial guidance.

Independent Zurich based insurance-linked securities (ILS) and catastrophe bond fund manager Plenum Investments Ltd. said today that it has experienced solid growth of its cat bond fund strategy over the last year, as total assets under management reached $350 million.