Insurance Linked Investments

Over the course of full-year 2023, White Mountains has reported that its investment into the Outrigger Re collateralized reinsurance sidecar that supports its re/insurer subsidiary Ark, generated the company $69 million in pre-tax income.

The creditors in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy case of insurtech Vesttoo are now trying mediation out, as a way to solve the sticking point over the consolidation of the estate, versus honouring the segregation of cell structures used for reinsurance transactions affected by fraudulent letters of credit (LOCs).

Hannover Re placed its K-Cessions quota share sidecar at US $757 million in size for 2024, shrinking the structure by 9% over the prior year. In an interview, Henning Ludolphs explained that despite some changes, the company has sufficient retrocession to take advantage of the hard reinsurance market environment this year.

According to Moody’s Investors Service, the catastrophe bond market remains the key driver of growth in insurance-linked securities (ILS), expecting a moderate pace of growth to continue as cat bonds become increasingly embedded into cedent reinsurance towers.

Independent and private equity funded broking group, Miller has reported that the retrocession marketplace was far more favourable for buyers in the mid to upper layers of towers, with some price decreases seen as capital builds back into this segment of the market.

France-headquartered global reinsurance firm SCOR has said today that it raised new third-party capital from risk partners in January 2024, while it also expanded the capacity arrangements it has with existing risk partners by 20%.

Artex Capital Solutions, the specialist unit of Artex Risk Solutions that creates and manages insurance-linked securities (ILS) and related structures for matching risk with capital, has appointed Christopher Wilson as its SVP Advisory and Head of Underwriting, based in Bermuda.

International specialty insurance and reinsurance group Chaucer has responded robustly to objections made by other creditors after its recent entry to the Vesttoo bankruptcy case, saying that the proposed bankruptcy plan has numerous issues and is “uncomfirmable.”

Having already set a new full-year record return by the end of November, the results of the final month of 2023 have lifted the average return of private ILS funds further above catastrophe bond funds, according to the Eurekahedge ILS Advisers Index.

Mereo Insurance, the Bermuda-based re/insurance start-up that has generated plenty of headlines due to the involvement of the former AIG CEO Brian Duperreault and its strategy to work closely with third-party capital, has now received a preliminary credit assessment from rating agency AM Best for its main underwriting vehicle.