The catastrophe bond market has seen a busy year so far in 2012 with the total volume of new cat bond issuances now sitting at $3.588 billion according to the data in our Deal Directory. As fast as the market grows from new issuances though it is of course shedding capacity at the other end as cat bonds roll off risk and mature. The current quarter sees $1.374 billion cat bond capacity mature, but with issuance so far during Q2 having reached $2.095 billion the outstanding cat bond market will grow once again.
Recent cat bonds which have matured in the last week or two include the $225m Mystic Re II Ltd., the $150m Ibis Re Ltd. 2009 and the $250m Residential Reinsurance 2009 Ltd. Among those still to mature this quarter are the $100m Calabash Re III Ltd. and the €50m Ianus Capital Ltd.
The steady flow of deals rolling off risk into maturity will slow during Q3 which sees little in the way of maturities and then the pace will accelerate in Q4 with another billion plus due to mature. The cat bond market should achieve impressive growth this year if the buoyant issuance sentiment continues through the rest of the year. The overall size of the cat bond market could grow by more than $2 billion if issuance through the rest of the year can come close to 2011.
Reinsurer Munich Re provided a nice way to visualise upcoming maturities by the type of peril in their end of Q1 2012 ILS and cat bond market report (which you can find here). We thought we’d share it with you below.
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Catastrophe bond maturities by peril (in $m) - Source: Munich Re
