Resilience Re Ltd. (Series 1761A)

The latest private catastrophe bond has been issued through the platform owned by insurance, reinsurance and capital markets broker and advisory Willis Towers Watson, a $37 million Resilience Re Ltd. (Series 1761A) transaction.

This new deal saw a single $37 million Series 1761A tranche of discounted zero-coupon participating notes issued by Resilience Re Ltd., with the notes then admitted for listing on the Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX) as Section V Insurance Related Securities.

The zero coupon discounted notes that were issued have been placed with qualified investors and are due June 4th 2018, so represent a reinsurance arrangement with a term of roughly one year.

This could be a renewal of last years $34 million Resilience Re Ltd. (Series 1661A) transaction, an assumption we make purely going on the last few digits of the series that tend to denote cells within the issuance vehicle (so we could just as easily be wrong). If it is a renewal then it also represents a slight increase in size of the transaction, which is positive to see.

As is typical of the most privately catastrophe bond transactions, we assume that the $37 million Resilience Re 1761A notes give an unnamed ceding company or sponsor a way to access collateralized reinsurance cover from the capital markets for losses from certain property catastrophe reinsurance exposures.

As ever with these private deals, exact details on the nature of this transaction are unavailable at this time.

Willis Towers Watson Securities will have been the service provider offering the roles of lead structuring agent and bookrunner for this private cat bond, enabling the sponsor and investors to transact, transforming a reinsurance arrangement into a securitised cat bond note with secondary liquidity made possible thanks to the listing as well.