Plenum cat bond fund assets hit $350m, more than double in one year

Independent Zurich based insurance-linked securities (ILS) and catastrophe bond fund manager Plenum Investments Ltd. said today that it has experienced solid growth of its cat bond fund strategy over the last year, as total assets under management reached $350 million.

This is a more than doubling in the size of the fund in just one year, as Plenum had previously reported the size of its cat bond fund strategy as $150 million at mid-March 2017.

The AuM had increased to $225 million by the end of last year, meaning that further growth in assets of 56% has been achieved through the first three months of 2018, to take the cat bond fund AuM to $350 million in April 2018.

Adding $200 million over a year has enabled Plenum to create a much larger portfolio, with likely broader diversification also achieved thanks to the greater volume of assets available to deploy.

The flagship Plenum CAT Bond Fund has a track record dating back to September 2010, longer than many ILS funds in the market can boast.

The company said that, “In the current market environment, based on record-high CAT bond issuances, we are able to efficiently invest the fund’s liquid cash.”

The manager said that performance remains its goal with the enlarged portfolio and it will continue to manage and deploy assets in line with its selective investment approach.

Dirk Schmelzer, Head of Portfolio Management at Plenum Investments, told Artemis, “2017 was challenging for all ILS managers, but it also proved that our diligent and selective investment approach reduces the risk of large drawdowns, which is one of the primary goals of our investors, when they invest with us.”

In total, Plenum’s overall catastrophe bond assets under management now sit at $380 million, across the UCITS fund and two private cat bond investment mandates.

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