Best of Artemis, week ending 7th April 2019

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 7th April 2019, 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.

Register today to attend our next ILS conference in Singapore, ILS Asia 2019.

Ten most viewed articles on Artemis.bm, week ending 7th April 2019:

1. Cat bond & related insurance-linked securities issuance hits $2.8bn in Q1 2019
   At $2.8 billion, catastrophe bond and ILS issuance was the second most active Q1 in the market’s history, in terms of deal volume. This came from 20 transactions consisting of 28 tranches of notes helping the outstanding market size increase to a huge $37.9 billion.
2. Apollo said raising up to $5.5bn for insurance-linked fund strategies
   Private equity and alternative investment specialist Apollo Global Management, LLC is reported to be out raising capital for a number of new investment funds, with as much as $5.5 billion said being raised for specific insurance-linked fund strategies.
3. Retrocession capacity scarcity at April renewal drives up to 35% rate increases
   The availability of retrocessional reinsurance capacity remained tight at the just completed April 1st 2019 renewals, according to broker Willis Re, resulting in similar market conditions to those seen in January.
4. “Structurally unprofitable” underwriting adds urgency to Lloyd’s reforms
   The subject of reforming the Lloyd’s insurance and reinsurance market, including ideas on modernisation, capital, costs and more, is being treated with more urgency than ever before, as its underwriting remains “structurally unprofitable” analysts say.
5. $300m Merna Re II 2019 catastrophe bond issued for State Farm
   U.S. primary insurance giant State Farm has once again privately syndicated and quietly issued its latest catastrophe bond, a $300 million Merna Re II Ltd. (Series 2019-1) securing the firm an expanded source of collateralized U.S. earthquake reinsurance protection.
6. Hurricane Michael industry loss hits $11bn, Florence $5.5bn: Aon
   Hurricane industry losses from the 2018 season have risen with hurricane Michael now estimated to have caused an industry loss of $11 billion, while hurricane Florence is estimated at $5.5 billion, both according to insurance and reinsurance broker Aon.
7. PIMCO ILS hires Michael Beck, former COO of Mt. Logan Re
   PIMCO (Pacific Investment Management Company LLC) continues to build-out its new insurance-linked securities business, adding another experienced reinsurance and ILS professional in Michael Beck, formerly the COO of Mt. Logan Re.
8. All-in-one re/insurer & ILS fund structure launched in Guernsey
   Guernsey has launched a new hybrid insurance-linked securities (ILS) vehicle, an all-in-one structure that can act as both re/insurer and ILS fund, which aims to make ILS fund managers operational lives easier.
9. Guy Carpenter aims for “best of service” as MMC acquisition of JLT completes
   The insurance and reinsurance broker landscape has shrunk by one company, as Marsh & McLennan’s acquisition of rival Jardine Lloyd Thompson has now been completed.
10. Brit hires Maffit from Elementum as VP Property Reinsurance, Bermuda
    Specialty insurance and reinsurance firm Brit Ltd. has announced the hiring of ILS experienced Kristina Maffit as a new VP in its Bermuda property reinsurance underwriting team.

This is not every article published on Artemis during the last week, just the most popular, some of which were published over a week ago. 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.

Get listed in our MarketView directory of professionals.

View the current breakdown of the ILS market in our range of charts, allowing you to analyse cat bond issuance.

Check out the assets under management of the ILS fund market with our ILS investment manager directory.