Eclipse Re issues $75m private cat bond, its first of 2022

Eclipse Re Ltd., the Horseshoe managed private syndicated collateralised reinsurance note, private catastrophe bond issuance and reinsurance transformer platform, has completed the first issuance we’ve seen of 2022, with a $75 million Eclipse Re Ltd. (Series 2022-1A) transaction coming to light.

The Eclipse Re Ltd. private catastrophe bond and risk transformer platform was particularly active in 2021, with some $411 million of private cat bonds issued, considerably higher than the 2020 total of just $107 million and on 2019’s almost $300 million of ILS deals issued through the structure.

Details of many private catastrophe bonds can be found in our extensive Artemis Deal Directory.

In 2021, private catastrophe bond issuance that we recorded in our Deal Directory surpassed $1 billion for the first time.

So far in 2022, issuance of private cat bonds is now approaching $224 million.

Eclipse Re Ltd. is a Bermuda domiciled special purpose insurer (SPI) and segregated account company that is managed by insurance-linked securities (ILS) market facilitator and service provider Horseshoe, which is an Artex company.

Eclipse Re is normally used to enable issuance of insurance-linked securities (ILS) notes, via the transformation, securitisation and ultimately transfer to one, or syndication to a group of investors, of reinsurance or retrocession arrangements.

The main use-cases are therefore the issuance of privately syndicated collateralised reinsurance notes, or private catastrophe bond notes, with an ability to cover a range of underlying structures and perils, or lines of insurance business.

Eclipse Re private cat bonds aren’t always broadly syndicated though, with the structure often used as a transformer for an ILS fund manager, to help them securitize a risk and make it investable for a catastrophe bond strategy.

Some of the Eclipse Re issuances over the last few years have been for the sole benefit of specialist, cat bond focused ILS fund manager Fermat Capital Management, acting as the investor behind a number of issuances from the platform.

Eclipse Re Ltd. has issued $75 million of Series 2022-01A notes, with the notes having a final maturity date, of December 31st 2023.

As ever, we assume they are property catastrophe risk-linked notes, providing an unnamed protection buyer, or ILS fund, with reinsurance or retrocession protection to the end of 2023.

The $75 million issuance of Series 2022-01A notes from Eclipse Re represent the vehicles segregated account EC0043.

The proceeds from the sale of the $75 million of private catastrophe bond notes will be used as collateral to underpin the related reinsurance or retrocession contract, held in a trust.

The notes have been placed with qualified institutional investors and were admitted to the Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX) as insurance-related securities for a listing, with Horseshoe also acting as the listing sponsor through its Horseshoe Corporate Services Limited unit.

ILS and reinsurance market service provider and facilitator Horseshoe takes a lead role as the manager for these Eclipse Re Ltd. transactions, with this special purpose vehicle a key part of its offering to clients.

Update: On collection of additional deal data we’ve now recalculated prior year private catastrophe bond issuance and the total issuance from 2017 has now overtaken 2021, making that the record year at $1.1 billion.

You can track cat bond and related ILS issuance by year and type of transaction in this chart.

You can also view details of every private cat bond we’ve tracked by filtering our Deal Directory to see private ILS transactions only.