Bermuda Stock Exchange lists its first UK catastrophe bond

The Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX) has become the listing home for notes issued under a UK domiciled catastrophe bond structure for the first time, as the £75 million of notes issued for Pool Re’s first terrorism cat bond find a home there.

The £75 million Baltic PCC Limited (Series 2019) terrorism catastrophe bond transaction completed this week, providing sponsor Pool Re with a source of retrocessional reinsurance protection for property damage caused by terror attacks, backed by the capital markets.

The cat bond provides innovative annual aggregate reinsurance protection to Pool Re and its issuance was oversubscribed by ILS investors and funds.

Pool Re, the UK government-backed mutual terrorism reinsurance facility, chose the Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX) as the location to list the Series 2019 notes that were issued by Baltic PCC Limited, so becoming the first UK domiciled cat bond issuance to be listed in Bermuda.

The only other UK domiciled cat bond is the Atlas Capital UK 2018 PLC (Series 2018 ISPV 1) sponsored by reinsurance firm SCOR, but its notes were listed in Ireland.

Commenting on the news, Greg Wojciechowski, President & CEO of the BSX stated, “The BSX is delighted to welcome Baltic PCC Limited to listing on the Exchange. Baltic PCC Limited joins over 200 ILS structures that have chosen the BSX as their international listing venue of choice. Baltic PCC Limited’s listing also underscores the BSX commitment to providing world class listing services to the expanding global ILS market, as numerous ILS structures originate from locations other than Bermuda.

“The BSX also congratulates Estera in supporting this important transaction. BSX Listing Sponsors play a key role in the Listing Process in providing a mechanism of communication with the Exchange and ensuring that issuers understand their regulatory obligations.”

Estera Securities (Bermuda) Limited acted as the listing sponsor for this arrangement, facilitating the listing of the Baltic PCC terror cat bond notes on the BSX.

Estera’s ILS team has now been involved in more than US $25 billion of ILS issuances to date, with the listing work being led by Associate Director, Sherman Taylor.

“Estera is proud of the key role it plays in Bermuda’s insurance / reinsurance industry,” explained Managing Director, Alison Dyer-Fagundo. “We are thrilled to work with issuers of innovative products and to promote Bermuda as a jurisdiction of choice for ILS and listings on the BSX.”

This is actually the second non-Bermuda domiciled Cat Bond to be listed on the BSX in 2019, after the Ireland domiciled Atmos Re DAC’s €45 million cat bond issued in January to provide reinsurance for sponsoring insurer UnipolSai, which also saw its listing sponsored by Estera.