Swiss Re Insurance-Linked Fund Management

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News & Analysis Results

Willow Re downgraded again; will default on interest payment

News 2nd February 2009

It’s become apparent that Allstate‘s Willow Re catastrophe bond has been downgraded again by Standard & Poor’s due to a notice from Allstate that it is going to default on it’s scheduled interest payment. The rating on Willow Re Ltd.’s Class B 2007-1 series notes has been downgraded to ‘D’ from ‘CC’. An interest payment […]

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Allstate expand capital markets cover with second Willow Re deal

News 12th June 2008

Allstate (NYSE:ALL) have closed their second catastrophe bond deal under the Cayman Islands domiciled Willow Re. The $250m deal provides Allstate with 3 years protection against windstorms in Texas. The deal is structured such that it would be triggered based on industry losses. Last year they issued $250m through Willow Re to cover themselves from […]

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Allstate launches $250m Sanders Re Ltd. catastrophe bond

News 22nd April 2013

As expected after the insurer withdrew around $1 billion of limit from the traditional reinsurance market as it restructured its catastrophe programme to take advantage of alternative reinsurance capacity and the capital markets, U.S. insurer Allstate has launched a new $250m catastrophe bond. The new cat bond from Allstate, Sanders Re Ltd. (Series 2013-1), is […]

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Catastrophe bond maturities continue apace in June

News 10th June 2011

The rate of catastrophe bond maturities has picked up with five transactions maturing in the last few days and another two due to mature before the end of the month. With close to $2.4 billion of cat bonds due to mature by the end of this quarter there is plenty of excess capital which is […]

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AIR Worldwide models risks for $10b of catastrophe bonds

News 6th April 2009

AIR Worldwide has announced that it has now modeled the risks on over $10b worth of catastrophe bonds since the market took off in 1996. They also claim to have modeled the risks on over 56% of the deals struck since 2007. During 2008 they provided services to 70% of the catastrophe bond capital issued […]

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Ajax Re catastrophe bond likely to default on interest payment

News 4th March 2009

The Ajax Re Ltd catastrophe bond from Aspen Insurance is looking like it is going to default in the coming days due to it’s inability to pay an upcoming interest payment. Ajax Re is one of the bonds which used Lehman Brothers as a total-return swap counterparty and has since been watched closely after Lehman […]

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Catastrophe bonds return a profit; which in times like these is rare

News 11th February 2009

I’ve written a number of times about the relative performance of cat bonds compared to other investments but it is only in the past couple of months that the difference in performance is really becoming apparent. Despite all the negative press about securitization, reports of large catastrophe losses, discussion of the failure of Lehman Brothers […]

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