Reinsurance News

Ardonagh Group, the largest independent insurance broking, underwriting, servicing and management company in the UK, has now added insurance-linked securities (ILS) servicing and management to its range of offerings, as its managing general agent Geo Underwriting has acquired insurance manager Robus Group.

Conduit Re, the pure reinsurance start-up targeting a $1.1 billion initial public offering (IPO) on the London Stock Exchange and set to begin operations in Bermuda, has now priced its IPO and looks forward to targeting what it calls “exceptional market conditions” for its launch.

Some of the earlier and larger retrocessional reinsurance programs in the market have received their firm orders or are completed, with indications that suggest rates are increasing even for some of the largest and most respected reinsurers in the market, suggesting much better returns are available for writing this business.

Global reinsurance giant Munich Re has lifted its estimate for losses from the COVID-19 pandemic to more than US $4 billion for 2020, as the reinsurer increased its estimate significantly to account for fourth-quarter losses.

Core Specialty has now launched after the private equity capitalisation and rebranding of Enstar’s StarStone U.S. operations, with Jeff Consolino and Ed Noonan at the helm, while industry veterans Dominic Addesso and Don Larson have also been added to the board.

AXA XL, the commercial property & casualty insurance and reinsurance arm of the AXA Group, is targeting a reduction in its natural catastrophe exposure over the coming years, as it looks to bring its business results to a sustainable and profitable level.

Hudson Structured Capital Management, the investment manager with a reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) focus, has exited one of its legacy, or run-off sector investments, as specialist Compre has been acquired by private equity firm Cinven and pension benefits investment manager the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI), providing an exit opportunity.

The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season comes to its official close today and two factors characterise what has been a record-setting season in many ways, the frequency of tropical storms and their rapid intensification, especially as they close in on landfall.

As the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market looks towards year-end and into the new year, investors are showing appetite for structures and strategies from across the ILS and broader insurance and reinsurance universe, according to Stephan Ruoff, Head of Schroder Secquaero.

Some insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds that invest in collateralised reinsurance contracts have been setting reserves for potential exposure to business interruption losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic in a handful of the major European catastrophe reinsurance programs, we understand.