Best of Artemis, week ending May 28th 2023

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending May 28th 2023, 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.

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Ten most read articles on Artemis.bm, week ending May 28th 2023:

1. RenRe buying AIG’s Validus reinsurance units, AlphaCat ILS manager
   RenaissanceRe is seeking further scale in all its endeavours, with the acquisition of the Validus reinsurance business and Talbot reinsurance book from global player AIG, while the deal includes buying the AlphaCat Managers ILS fund management unit as well.
2. Florida renewals – Early, orderly, with sufficient capital to clear: JMP Securities
   The upcoming Florida reinsurance renewals at June 1st are seen as progressing well and at a good pace, despite the hard market environment, with capacity seen as sufficient to enable programs to clear, analysts at JMP Securities have said.
3. Swiss Re’s Vita Capital mortality bond seen at-risk of attaching
   According to our sources, the Vita Capital VI Limited (Series 2021-1) mortality catastrophe bond transaction that was sponsored by global reinsurance firm Swiss Re, is viewed as at-risk of attaching after preliminary data showed an increase in weighted mortality rates in 2022 for the US and the UK.
4. Catastrophe bond issuance accelerates to record-setting pace in 2023
   The pace of catastrophe bond issuance has continued to accelerate through recent weeks and according to Artemis’ data the cat bond market is now on a record-setting pace in 2023, with around $8.43 billion of cat bond and related ILS currently expected to have completed by the end of May.
5. Beazley tops-up cyber cat bond cover with second $20m issuance
   Beazley has successfully sponsored its second cyber catastrophe bond, Artemis has learned from sources, with the firm topping up its debut cyber cat bond using a second segregated cell to add $20 million of fresh reinsurance cover, through a Cairney II issuance.
6. The Hanover seeks second Commonwealth Re cat bond with $125m target
   The Hanover Insurance Group, Inc. has returned to the catastrophe bond market for what will be its second time, seeking $125 million or more in US Northeast named storm reinsurance protection with this Commonwealth Re Ltd. (Series 2023-1) issuance.
7. Reinsurance to decelerate in 2024. ILS capital raises getting easier: BMO
   Hard reinsurance market pricing conditions are anticipated to begin to decelerate in 2024, with capital expected to continue flowing in and insurance-linked securities (ILS) capital raises starting to get easier, analysts at BMO Capital Markets said in a recent report.
8. Arbol sets up Bermuda collateralized insurer to tap capital market capacity
   Arbol has become the latest company to establish a collateralized insurer class of company in Bermuda, named Arbol Re Ltd.
9. ILS fund managers report growing investor interest: KBW
   Insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund managers are beginning to report growing interest from institutional investors, analysts from KBW reported from a Bermuda visit last week.
10. Cat bond yields still 7.1x higher than 2016, despite some softening: Twelve
    The catastrophe bond investment opportunity remains very attractive, even after considering the recent moderation in pricing that has been seen, with the risk-adjusted yield of the cat bond market remaining significantly higher than in the past, according to Twelve Capital.

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 40 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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