Insurance Linked Investments

Any hopes that meaningful reinsurance rate increases might have been available in 2018, to help re/insurers and ILS players offset the heavy losses suffered in 2017, have been dashed by another broadly flat reinsurance renewal at April 1st, according to broker Willis Re.

During the last quarter of record the Pioneer ILS Interval Fund, a U.S. mutual fund insurance-linked securities and reinsurance linked investment strategy operated by asset manager Amundi Pioneer Investment Management, expanded significantly, growing assets under management for the strategy by 88% to over $676 million.

Bermudian reinsurance firm Everest Re is back with its latest catastrophe bond issuance, which sees the company bringing twin Kilimanjaro Re deals to secure at least $300 million of protection, from Kilimanjaro Re Ltd. (Series 2018-1) and Kilimanjaro Re Ltd. (Series 2018-2) issues, covering identical layers of risk but with different durations.

While the major catastrophe losses of 2017 took their toll on the results of ILS fund manager Nephila Capital’s Syndicate 2357 vehicle at Lloyd’s of London, driving the syndicate to a loss for the year, the manager is looking to expand on the use of the vehicle and as a result has increased its stamp […]

Global asset management group Schroders observed a mixed outcome at the January 1st, 2018 renewals, with insurance-linked securities (ILS) business experiencing lower-than-anticipated rate increases across all lines, according to Dirk Lohmann, CEO of Secquaero Advisors AG and Daniel Ineichen, Head of ILS Portfolio Management at Schroders.

It’s M&A season in insurance and reinsurance with seemingly nobody being safe from the searching eyes of an investor or acquirer and things are moving apace, with a number of deals on the table and likely more discussions going on behind closed doors.

Insurance-linked securities (ILS) remain an attractive and diversifying asset class, and with returns now expected to be higher following 2017 catastrophe events and the subsequent impact on reinsurance industry pricing, Mercer’s Robert Howie suggests investors should look to the space in 2018.

IncubEx, the product and service development firm that counts its founder and Chairman as insurance and reinsurance entrepreneur and Brit co-founder Neil Eckert, is in the market raising funds and we’re told that one of the target products the firm is working on is catastrophe risk trading.

Demand in the expanding and increasingly influential insurance-linked securities (ILS) market remains strong, and as the space grows, capital markets-backed capacity will cover more of the re/insurance industry’s losses from major events, according to Greg Reisner, a Director at international ratings agency, A.M. Best.

A life settlements investment fund, Life Settlement Assets PLC, has been listed on the London Stock Exchange’s specialist fund segment this morning, as the manager of the strategy looks to gain access to a broader cross-section of investors through a listed closed-ended vehicle.