Amundi US cat bond fund surpasses $500m, dedicated ILS fund AUM now $1.2bn+

Amundi US Investment Management has continued to experience strong demand for its most recently launched dedicated insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund strategy, with the Pioneer CAT Bond Fund now surpassing $500 million in assets under management.

Thanks to continued success in raising capital for the cat bond fund, Amundi US has now taken its dedicated ILS fund assets under management to above $1.2 billion.

While the investment manager now deploys around $2 billion of capital to cat bonds and other ILS opportunities in total, through the two dedicated ILS strategies and its range of multi-asset and fixed income funds that incorporate ILS as a diversifier.

Recall that, Amundi US launched its dedicated cat bond mutual fund, the Pioneer CAT Bond Fund, in the first-half of 2023.

The Pioneer CAT Bond Fund reached $84.2 million in assets by the end of October 2023 and delivered its investors an 11.20% net asset value (NAV) return from launch to that time.

The cat bond fund strategy surpassed $150 million in assets at its one year anniversary in late January 2024, then grew further to $218 million by the end of February 2024, later reaching $338 million by early July this year and then just over $358 million at the end of July 2024, before reaching $426 million by October this year.

Capital raising continued over recent weeks, with the Pioneer CAT Bond Fund now reaching the $500 million in assets milestone as of this week.

The investment manager has experienced impressive demand for its first pure cat bond fund strategy and Artemis spoke with Chin Liu, Amundi US’ Director of Insurance-Linked Securities (ILS) and Portfolio Manager.

On the growth seen in the cat bond fund strategy Liu told us, “We have been pleased with the continued market acceptance of our cat bond strategy – both by newer investors to this asset class as well as long-term clients that choose to have a more liquid alternative to complement their other ILS exposures.”

Adding, on future ambitions for the strategy, “Similar to how we manage our dedicated ILS funds, we want to continue to grow these strategies in a thoughtful and disciplined fashion by attracting investors who value the long-term value proposition of this structurally uncorrelated asset class to build more resilient portfolios.”

Liu went on to highlight ILS market conditions, saying, “As a very long time investor in this asset class we, we continue to remain very constructive on the attractiveness of ILS, both on an absolute basis as well as compared to many other traditional asset classes.”

Amundi US now manages over $1.2 billion in ILS assets across the dedicated cat bond strategy and its longer-standing dedicated mutual ILS fund strategy that allocates to a wider-range of reinsurance instruments, the Pioneer ILS Interval Fund.

The Pioneer ILS Interval Fund reached $707 million in assets recently, reflecting steady growth through 2024.

With Amundi US also allocating to cat bonds and other ILS across a number of the multi-asset strategy funds under its management, the company currently allocates around $2 billion of capital to the ILS asset class.