Best of Artemis, week ending 6th June 2021

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 6th June 2021, covering catastrophe bonds, ILS, reinsurance capital and related risk transfer topics. To ensure you never miss a thing subscribe to the weekly Artemis email newsletter updates or get our email alerts for every article we publish.

Ten most read articles on Artemis.bm, week ending 6th June 2021:

1. US DOJ may not challenge Aon / Willis Towers Watson merger: Report
   It was reported that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division may not challenge Aon’s acquisition of rival Willis Towers Watson (WTW), which, after the EC related divestment package, means additional disposals to remedy any DOJ concerns are the most likely outcome.
2. Property catastrophe reinsurance prices up 5% – 10% at June 1 renewal: HX
   Risk-adjusted pricing for property catastrophe reinsurance was up by between 5% and 10% on average at the June 1st renewals, according to the latest data from HX, the data, analytics and advisory division of Howden Group Holdings.
3. Tencent shows tech’s appetite to own access to reinsurance capital
   Tencent Holdings Ltd., the Chinese multinational technology conglomerate, has provided one of the clearest examples of a tech giant wanting to own its access to reinsurance capital, a trend we’ve been anticipating would emerge.
4. Collateralized reinsurance renewals firmer than cat bonds or ILW’s
   While the catastrophe bond market has been first to experience investor-demand and capacity driven softening, as spreads have increasingly tightened on primary issues over recent months, this isn’t yet reading across to the entire collateralized reinsurance market at the mid-year renewal season.
5. Artemis Live interview: RMS’ new North Atlantic hurricane model update
   For our latest Artemis Live interview we were joined by Jeff Waters and Ben Brookes from catastrophe risk modeller RMS, to discuss the latest update to the RMS North Atlantic hurricane model and how the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market should think about this evolution in modelling hurricane risk.
6. ILS capital dominates Citizens reinsurance renewal, led by Nephila’s $600m line
   Third-party sources of reinsurance capital, largely from the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market, has dominated the reinsurance renewal of Florida’s Citizens Property Insurance Corporation in 2021, with ILS giant Nephila Capital the biggest market by a long way thanks to a $600 million line.
7. Parhelion targets $500m capital raise to become sustainable ESG insurer
   Parhelion, an energy and climate risk finance focused company specialising in non-traditional risk issues, is targeting a capital raise of $500 million as it seeks to become a “sustainable insurer” focused on ESG aligned underwriting and investment.
8. Aspen hires von Reitzenstein as Capital Markets Portfolio Manager
   Aspen Capital Markets has hired Andy von Reitzenstein, previously of Credit Suisse ILS backed reinsurer Bernina Re, as a Portfolio Manager based in Bermuda.
9. Start-up reinsurance capital weighs on renewals as much as cat bond rates
   Recent low rates and strong execution in the catastrophe bond market is not the only thing weighing on reinsurance rates around this mid-year renewal season, there is also start-up and newly raised capital to consider.
10. Reinsurance rate momentum to persist, albeit slower paced: Moody’s
    With the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season now upon us and forecasts calling for another above average level of activity this year, Moody’s Investors Service highlighted challenges this may present to the reinsurance sector, but remains positive on more price momentum, whether it is an impactful year for losses or not.

This is not every article published on Artemis during the last week, just the most popular among our readers over the last seven days. There were 29 new articles published in the last week. To ensure you always stay up to date with Artemis and never miss a story subscribe to our weekly email newsletter which is delivered every Wednesday.

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