Nationwide receives fifth loss payment under Caelus Re V cat bond

Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, the U.S. primary insurer, has benefited from another almost $8.5 million loss payment under its Caelus Re V Ltd. (Series 2017-1) Class D tranche of catastrophe bond notes, as reinsurance recoveries from that transaction continue.

Nationwide started to benefit from reinsurance recoveries under this catastrophe bond back in July 2019, as the impacts of catastrophe losses from 2017 events including hurricanes Harvey & Irma, severe thunderstorms, California wildfires and winter storms all raised the insurers estimated aggregate ultimate net loss above the attachment for the reinsurance layer covered by this cat bond tranche.

In July, we revealed Nationwide made its first recovery of a $10.73 million loss payment, from its originally $75 million Caelus Re V Series 2017-1 Class D tranche of catastrophe bond notes.

That first claim was followed up quickly with a second reinsurance recovery from the same cat bond tranche, as Nationwide also received a $10.3 million loss payment from the Caelus Re V 2017-1 Class D cat bond notes.

Nationwide drew-down further on the reinsurance protection this riskiest tranche of cat bond notes provides it with, making another just under $3.54 million recovery in September, which when added to the other’s already made took Nationwide’s reinsurance recoveries under the Class D tranche of the Caelus Re V 2017-1 cat bond to almost $25 million.

Finally, a fourth reinsurance recovery was made as the loss payments continued and Nationwide benefited from another just over $8.85 million claim under the Class D Caelus Re V cat bond notes, taking total recoveries under the tranche to around $33.4 million by October.

Now, Nationwide has received a fifth loss payment from the Caelus Re V Class D catastrophe bond notes, with an $8.457 million reinsurance recovery made this month.

That takes total recoveries from what was originally a $75 million tranche of notes to almost $41.9 million, while the remaining outstanding principal of this tranche has fallen further to just over $33.13 million.

Reinsurance recoveries are likely to continue as well, with this particular tranche of notes marked down as expected to suffer a total loss of principal on secondary pricing sheets.

Nationwide may also benefit from loss payments under at least one other tranche of notes from this Caelus Re V catastrophe bond, as the insurers reported estimate of aggregate UNL stands well into the Class C tranche coverage layer.

There is also a possibility that Nationwide makes some reinsurance recoveries under its 2018 Caelus Re cat bond as well, with that deal marked down.

If the secondary market has these tranches all marked accurately, it suggests Nationwide’s overall cat bond reinsurance recoveries for 2017 and 2018 losses could reach somewhere around the $280 million mark and so loss payments have some way to run.

You can read all about the catastrophe bonds that have defaulted, faced a loss of principal, or that are considered at risk of loss in our directory detailing catastrophe bond defaults and potential payouts.