Best of Artemis, week ending 27th November 2011

We hope our readers in the U.S. had a good Thanksgiving break with their families! In case you missed some of our news stories from the last seven days, here’s your chance to catch up. The catastrophe bond market has been busy with new deals marketing, including an innovative workers comp linked cat bond, and one deal more than doubling in size before close. If you missed these or any other stories from the last seven days, you can catch up here with the top ten most read stories on Artemis.

Top ten most viewed articles on Artemis.bm, week ending 27th November 2011:

1. Golden State Re Ltd. catastrophe bond to cover workers compensation losses from earthquakes
   This innovative catastrophe bond seeks to transfer the risks of workers compensation claims arising from earthquakes in California. It’s the first cat bond deal to try to do this and the first cat bond issued by a state workers comp fund.
2. Japanese non-life insurers may look for new sources of catastrophe reinsurance
   A report from Fitch Ratings suggests that Japanese insurers, hit particularly hard by disasters this year, could turn to alternative forms of catastrophe reinsurance coverage including cat bonds.
3. Compass Re cat bond more than doubles during marketing phase
   The Compass Re cat bond, which officially closes this week, more than doubled in size during marketing due to investor demand for the transaction.
4. Dunamis launches innovative, cost-effective catastrophe bond platform Kalista
   Dunamis Holdings launch a new platform which aims to make cat bond issuance cheaper, quicker and more cost-effective by reducing the number of parties required and providing many of the facilities and functions under one roof.
5. Steady flow of new catastrophe bonds forecast for 2012
   Market participants expect a steady flow of new cat bonds through the first half of 2012 with some expecting at least 10 new deals to come to market.
6. Insurance-linked securities fund administrator launched by Horseshoe and ISIS
   A new dedicated insurance-linked securities fund administration outfit launches in Bermuda, aiming to become the administrator of choice for ILS funds.
7. Residential Reinsurance 2011 Ltd. Series 2011-2 catastrophe bond being issued for USAA
   USAA are privately marketing another cat bond in their Residential Re series of deals. This will be their 17th cat bond issuance to date.
8. CATCo’s latest fundraising takes it to roughly $1 billion assets under management
   CATCo Investment Management have another successful round of fundraising, demonstrating the appetite among investors for reinsurance-linked investment opportunities.
9. A.M. Best suggests Thai flood insured losses could rise towards $20 billion
   Estimates for insured losses from the Thai flooding just keep growing. It’s unlikely that a final loss tally will be properly understood for many months while business interruption claims mount.
10. SCOR marketing new Atlas VI Capital Ltd. 2011 catastrophe bond
    Another new cat bond is in the early stages of marketing, with SCOR seeking to issue their eighth Atlas cat bond deal.