Cat bond sponsors continue to look to Bermuda for listings: Estera

Foreign sponsors of insurance-linked securities (ILS) transactions such as catastrophe bonds continue to look to Bermuda as the location for listing the resulting notes, with Estera having listed all of the transactions originating in Europe or the UK this year.

The team at Estera, a global provider of corporate, fund, trust and legal services, including to reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) markets, has now acted on behalf of an impressive 55% of all ILS transactions listed on the Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX).

The latest deal Estera has acted on and that has listed on the BSX is Covea Group’s recently completed €120 million Hexagon II Reinsurance DAC (Series 2019-1) catastrophe bond transaction.

This deal is the third EU domiciled ILS transaction to be listed in Bermuda on the BSX so far this year, following on from the Estera sponsored listing of the €45 million Atmos Re DAC notes and £75 million Baltic PCC notes from Ireland and the UK respectively.

So far in 2019, there have been six sets of ILS notes that have originated from foreign issuers and listed on the BSX in 2019. Estera has been responsible for listing all of the deals originating in the EU and UK.

Alison Dyer, Managing Director at Estera Bermuda, commented, “We are thrilled to see the BSX continue to attract deals domiciled both in Bermuda and internationally, demonstrating the reputation of Bermuda as a world-class jurisdiction for ILS.

“Estera continues to be a market leader and has recently expanded its ILS team as well as services, with the recent addition of legal services to offer a comprehensive client-focused service.”

From Estera, Account Manager Irish Aleria led the listing of the Hexagon Re II catastrophe bond notes, with assistance from Associate Director Sherman Taylor.

In total the Estera ILS team has supported the issuance and listing of more than $30 billion of ILS and catastrophe bond transactions over the last 12 years.