Aspen third-party capital assets hit $850m, fees continue to rise

Aspen Insurance Holdings Limited, the Bermuda headquartered insurance and reinsurance underwriter, has increased its third-party and insurance-linked securities (ILS) assets under management by more than 6% in the first-half of 2021, lifting them to $850 million by the end of June.

At the same time, the fee income earned by the Aspen Capital Markets unit for managing this third-party reinsurance capital have continued to grow, with the company reporting that its capital markets business contributed total fee income of $30.5 million for the six months to the end of June 2021.

That compares to $800 million of assets under management at the end of 2020 and $32.6 million of fee income earned from the Aspen Capital Markets operations over the full-year of 2020.

Mark Cloutier, Group Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Aspen, commented, “Capital Markets remains an important pillar of our strategy, reflecting the appetite from third party investors for access to both our platform and underwriting, and we have seen successful capital raises for Aspen Capital Markets’ (“ACM”) cat and non-cat products.

“In addition, we are well on track to exceed our 2020 fee income significantly.”

Cloutier also highlighted that Aspen is now recognising increasing synergies related to third-party reinsurance capital and the use of ILS, having pulled its capital markets and ceded reinsurance teams together.

“We also recognized the synergies between ACM and our Outwards Reinsurance teams – combining the two into Aspen Capital Partners. This move allows us to further enable our trading partners to access the full breadth of Aspen’s capabilities, including risk sourcing, underwriting, modelling, actuarial and claims,” Cloutier explained.

The company said that its increased third-party ILS assets under management represents a “a significant increase that reflects our view that capital markets business and investors are key partners in our further growth and innovation efforts.”

Cloutier called the Aspen Capital Markets unit a “leading capital markets proposition” saying that alongside Aspen’s insurance and reinsurance franchises, the company has confidence as it continues on its “mission to be a top quartile performing specialty (re)insurer.”

Aspen has continued to experience success in this area, building on activities that in the main utilise the Peregrine Re special purpose vehicle, which serves as the home for Aspen’s fully-collateralized reinsurance quota-share business, alongside private managed funds.

Aspen Capital Markets specialises in constructing tailor-made portfolios of reinsurance for investors through managed insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds, as well as quota share sidecar structures which utilise the Peregrine Re vehicle. The unit recently expanded to cover specialty and casualty lines as well.

Aspen Capital Markets is one of the dedicated insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund managers and reinsurers offering ILS-style investment opportunities listed in our Insurance-Linked Securities Investment Managers & Funds Directory.