Best of Artemis, week ending 14th October 2012

The ILS and catastrophe bond market are sitting out the remainder of the U.S. hurricane season, hoping for another diversifying deal to come to market. Appetite remains strong and there are market rumours that a deal could launch within the next fortnight. As always, you can read every market news story and article on the Artemis news blog, subscribe to our weekly email newsletter update and for your convenience here are the ten most popular news articles from the last seven days on Artemis.

Top ten most viewed articles on Artemis.bm, week ending 14th October 2012:

1. Direct investment into reinsurance transactions better than equity: Twelve Capital
   We’ve written a number of times recently on Artemis about the benefits of investments in reinsurance-linked strategies such as catastrophe bonds, insurance-linked security funds, collateralized reinsurance vehicles and other instruments versus investments in insurance and reinsurance firm equity. Equity investments have seen a reduction in interest, as have most sectors equities, thanks to the financial market upheavals of recent years.
2. Kalista launches parametric catastrophe re/insurance products
   Kalista Global, a Bermuda based insurance and reinsurance services firm with a focus on the ILS, catastrophe bond and alternative reinsurance sectors, is launching a range of re/insurance products which utilise parametric triggers.
3. Solidum Re Eiger is first private catastrophe bond to list on an exchange
   The notes issued for this transaction by Solidum Re Eiger IC Limited have been listed on the Channel Islands Stock Exchange (CISX) in Guernsey, making it the first private cat bond transaction to be listed on any exchange worldwide.
4. Correlation between insurance-linked securities returns and S&P500 returns declines
   Today we have a really interesting chart showing the correlation of ILS returns with the S&P500 from the latest quarterly ILS market report published yesterday by Lane Financial LLC.
5. 2012 a remarkable year for catastrophe bonds: A.M. Best
   2012 has seen records set, volume of issuance nearing an all time high and the size of the outstanding ILS market approaching a peak, all of which add’s up to a quite remarkable year.
6. Goldman Sachs goes neutral on reinsurance, capital flow into alternatives a factor
   Goldman Sachs have downgraded their sentiment rating on Bermuda based reinsurer RenaissanceRe Holdings from ‘Buy’ to ‘Neutral’ and cited capital inflows to the non-traditional reinsurance sector as one of the contributing factors.
7. Increased market capacity and competition offset strengths of Greenlight Re
   A.M. Best cite the competitive nature of the influx of capital and competitors into the collateralized and convergence reinsurance space as a negative factor influencing their rating assessment of Greenlight Re.
8. Allied World Assurance in hedge fund partnership
   The boundary between the reinsurance sector and the hedge fund world have never been totally defined, but as convergence between the capital markets and reinsurance sector continues apace the lines are becoming even more blurred.
9. Insight into the insurance-linked securities (ILS) investor base and how it has changed over time
   The investor landscape within the insurance-linked securities and catastrophe bond market has changed over the relatively short period that the market has been in operation.
10. Insurance-linked security rates decline, returns rise in third quarter: Lane Financial
    ILS rates have declined in recent months which returns have been rising, according to data from Lane Financial.

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If you’re looking for details on catastrophe bond and ILS transactions our Deal Directory has more than 260 listed.

If you want to track hurricanes or tropical storms visit our 2012 Atlantic Hurricane Season page.