Insurance Linked Investments

Ledger Investing, the insurance technology (insurtech) and insurance-linked securities (ILS) focused company, has added a new executive with significant fundraising and investor relations expertise.

Catastrophe bonds, as an asset class exhibiting the rare property of price moves that are independent of broader financial markets, can be considered “the only true source of diversification,” according to Swiss private bank Banque Bonhôte & Cie.

Catastrophe bond funds in the UCITS format have reported a record start to the year, delivering almost 4% in returns on average in the first-quarter of 2023, according to the latest data from the Plenum CAT Bond UCITS Fund Indices.

Hudson Structured Capital Management Ltd. (HSCM), the insurance, reinsurance and transportation focused investment manager, continues to invest in risk and insurance-related technology startups, with its latest as a lead investor in a $12 million Series A fundraise for Earned, formerly known as Forme Financial.

Inflows to the catastrophe bond market and recoveries in values of certain cat bond positions through the first-quarter of 2023, have driven the combined assets under management of the main UCITS cat bond fund strategies 7% higher to a new record of $9.37 billion.

Insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds delivered another strong month of performance in February 2023, with every ILS fund represented in the Eurekahedge ILS Advisers Index reporting positive returns for the month, but with catastrophe bond funds leading the way.

Alternative reinsurance capital, so the capacity deployed through insurance-linked securities (ILS) structures including catastrophe bonds, has experienced a return to growth in the second-half of 2022, ending the year 2% up at $96 billion, while traditional reinsurance capital shrank 14%, according to data from Gallagher Re.

DeNexus, a specialist provider of cyber risk quantification tools and software, has updated its main cyber risk modelling platform, saying that it aims to give greater confidence to both reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) markets when it comes to understanding cyber risks.

Stone Ridge Asset Management’s mutual insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund assets under management (AuM) rose in the last quarter of record, seemingly driven in the main by improvements in catastrophe bond values and returns.

Helios Underwriting, the Lloyd’s of London focused investment and underwriting vehicle that counts among its capital backers a share from insurance-linked securities (ILS) market sources, has named well known insurance and reinsurance industry leader Martin Reith as its new CEO.