AXIS Capital, the Bermuda-headquartered global re/insurer, has increased the size of its new Alturas Re Ltd. collateralised re/insurance sidecar to $130 million for 2019, with the issuance of a second tranche of notes which we understand to be reinsurance focused.
The first $55 million tranche of notes were issued by the Alturas Re Ltd. sidecar just before the end of December, a Series 2019-1 Class A tranche which our sources said was focused on a portfolio of property insurance risks.
That looks like it is the first sidecar transaction to solely feature a portfolio of insurance risks, that were ceded to investors via Alturas Re to provide collateralised reinsurance support to the AXIS Capital property portfolio.
Now a second tranche of notes has been issued and listed in Bermuda, a $75 million Series 2019-2 Class A tranche of Participating Notes which are also due March 10th 2023, the same date as the Class A notes.
Sources tell us that this is a reinsurance focused sidecar transaction, with Alturas Re and its investors providing collateralised retrocession support to AXIS Capital’s property catastrophe reinsurance portfolio, as is more typical in the reinsurance sidecar world.
After this second series of notes has been issued, the Alturas Re sidecar will now provide AXIS Capital with a fully collateralised $130 million source of reinsurance and retrocessional protection, funded by capital markets investors.
Alturas Re will sit alongside other capacity providers that AXIS Capital works with, including its range of third-party capitalised vehicles and quota share partners.
AXIS has used significant amounts of quota share capacity from the likes of investor Stone Ridge in the past and the launch of Alturas Re could signal the re/insurer seeking to take greater control of these cessions and to earn its share of fee income through managing them within its own vehicle in future.
There may be a formal announcement on the launch of Alturas Re from AXIS Capital in the coming weeks and we’ll update you if any further information on the new reinsurance sidecar becomes available.
For more details on reinsurance sidecar investments and transactions view our list of collateralized reinsurance sidecars.
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