Artex Axcell Re issues $20m Grantham private catastrophe bond notes

Artex Axcell Re, the Bermuda domiciled Artex Risk Solutions operated risk transformer entity, has brought another new private catastrophe bond transaction to market, with $20 million of Artex Axcell Re – PI0055 Grantham notes successfully issued and placed.

It becomes the fifth privately placed catastrophe bond issuance we’ve reported on that has been issued by the Artex Axcell Re (Bermuda) Limited transformer and cell facility so far in 2026.

This structure is owned by Artex Risk Solutions and used to help sponsors access sources of risk capital in an efficient manner through issuances of securitized notes, with the Artex Capital Solutions division managing and administering the structure.

Including this latest $20 million issuance from Artex Axcell Re, we have now tracked 20 similar cat bond lite transactions so far in 2026 across all issuers.

This new deal lifts issuance of privately placed catastrophe bonds we’ve tracked to just over $403 million year-to-date.

You can view details on every private cat bond we’ve tracked in the Artemis Catastrophe Bond Deal Directory by using the filters to view only private deals (filter by type).

Artex Axcell Re, as a transformer and segregated accounts vehicle, is utilised by Artex to help clients in transacting reinsurance related risks, on a collateralized basis including through the issuance of private insurance-linked securities (ILS) notes.

Issuances from the structure range from collateralized reinsurance to private cat bonds, assisted by facilitator Artex Capital Solutions, the capital markets focused division of Artex.

In this latest case, Artex Axcell Re (Bermuda) Limited, under its ILS Note Program II, has issued US $20 million of PI0055 Grantham notes, on behalf of a segregated account of the same name.

The $20 million of private cat bond notes issued have a due date of December 7th 2026, so presumably these are a single US hurricane season transaction, likely arranged around the mid-year reinsurance renewals to help a sponsor access capital markets backed sources of risk transfer for that peak peril, although we cannot be certain as no covered peril details are available to us.

The $20 million of PI0055 Grantham notes issued by Artex Axcell Re have been privately placed as insurance-linked securities with qualified institutional investors and are now listed on the Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX).

As with every private ILS or cat bond deal that we report on, unless we gain access to more details on the arrangement we make the assumption these cover certain unknown property catastrophe reinsurance or retrocessional risks.

Including this latest transaction, we’ve now seen just over $132 million of private cat bond issuance from the Artex Axcell Re (Bermuda) Limited transformer vehicle this year.

Private cat bond issuance across all issuers in 2026 has now reached $403.32 million so far this year.

In 2025 we analysed and tracked $626.51 million of private catastrophe bonds, as our chart shows.

2017 remains the record year for private cat bonds that we have tracked, at just over $1.12 billion of issuance recorded by Artemis.

You can analyse catastrophe bond issuance by type of deal in this chart, which you can filter using the key to view only private cat bond issuance.

You can view details on every private cat bond we’ve tracked in the Artemis Catastrophe Bond Deal Directory. Use the filters to view only private cat bonds (filter by type).