First Coast Re II Pte. Ltd. (Series 2019-1)

Security First Insurance has returned to the capital markets for a third catastrophe bond issuance, which sees the company looking to expand its sources of reinsurance capacity with the assistance of global reinsurer Swiss Re, which acts as a conduit to cat bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) investors.

This is Security First’s third cat bond issuance and we understand this Singapore domiciled cat bond issuance will be a replacement for its soon to mature $75 million First Coast Re 2016 cat bond.

Swiss Re America has acted as the ceding reinsurer for this First Coast Re II 2019-1 cat bond, with insurer Security First benefitting from the collateralized coverage by entering into a reinsurance agreement with the firm.

The collateralized reinsurance protection from the issued notes, which is on an indemnity trigger, per-occurrence and cascading basis across a four-year term, is provided via a retrocessional reinsurance agreement between special purpose insurer First Coast Re II Pte. Ltd. and ceding reinsurer Swiss Re America, which in turn enters into a reinsurance agreement with Security First Insurance.

Covered perils are the same as Security First’s last two catastrophe bonds we understand, so Florida named storm and severe thunderstorm risks.

This First Coast Re II Pte. 2019 cat bond actually began life as a $75 million deal when it first hit the market, enough to replace the maturing 2016 cat bond.

But demand from investors has helped the placement to increase in size and so Security First is set to boost its multi-year and fully collateralized reinsurance protection with this new deal now set to issue $100 million of notes.

We don’t at this time have full visibility of the level of risk or where this new catastrophe bond will site in Security First’s reinsurance tower. But we can tell you that at pricing yesterday, the notes priced within the bounds of the upper-half of the initial coupon guidance range.

The $100 million of notes issued were sold to cat bond investors and funds under Rule 144A of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, making this the first full 144A issuance of a catastrophe bond in Singapore.