Insurance Linked Investments

While catastrophe bond spreads have tightened since their high-point reached in the wake of hurricane Ian, the market dynamics currently being seen are sustaining an attractive opportunity for investors, according to Isabella Milazzo of Frontier Advisors.

White Mountains has marked-up the valuation of its stake in insurance-linked securities (ILS) investment fund manager and collateralised reinsurance underwriter Elementum Advisors, LLC, even though the proportion of the ILS manager that it owns had been reduced.

Investors in insurance-linked securities (ILS) still haven’t got over the years of “paltry” returns they’ve seen from the asset class since 2017, according to AM Best, but this is one driver for the continuation of the hard market, as well as the much improved coverage terms being agreed to in ILS contracts.

SCOR Investment Partners, the asset management arm of the French reinsurance group and a manager of insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds, has announced a new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) appointment, with long-standing executive Louis Bourrousse taking over the top-position.

We’ve learned that the hurricane Ian side pocket investment situation has improved considerably for some insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund managers, with a number of key exposures now failing to reach the levels of cedent loss needed to attach coverage in recent weeks.

According to Artemis’ Deal Directory data, which tracks issuances of catastrophe bonds and related insurance-linked securities, overall issuance year-to-date has already reached $12.5 billion, while issuance of Rule 144A property cat bonds alone is now above $11.5 billion in 2023.

CatX, a digital catastrophe and parametric risk exchange start-up, has announced a successful raise of a $2.7 million seed funding round, as it looks to ramp up its mission to connect re/insurers with efficient sources of alternative reinsurance risk capital.

Acting as a front or transformer for insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds and investors is an increasingly important part of global reinsurance firm Hannover Re’s business and there is evidence these activities grew further for the company in the first-half of 2023.

We’re told that the sum total of assets and so value that could be distributed in Vesttoo’s pending liquidation under the bankruptcy proceedings, is estimated to be below $25 million, which suggests creditors that lost significant value due to the reinsurance letter of credit (LOC) fraud are likely to be left unsatisfied, so may look […]

Aspen Capital Markets, the third-party and alternative reinsurance capital management unit of global re/insurer Aspen, has raised new funds for its third-party capital and insurance-linked securities (ILS) vehicles, taking total assets under management to $1.5 billion at the end of September 2023.