Catastrophe bond fund news

Stone Ridge Asset Management, the New York based alternative risk premia focused investment manager, appears to have taken the strongest action in terms of marking down its mutual catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds on potential exposure to the California wildfires, while most other strategies in the market have barely moved.

Catastrophe bond funds in the UCITS format continued their strong growth through the end of last year, reaching a new high of just over $13.8 billion in cat bond assets under management, which represents very impressive 26% growth through 2024.

2024 was another record issuance year for the catastrophe bond market and with total alternative reinsurance capital reaching new heights, the way insurance-linked securities (ILS) managers and investors matched appropriate risk returns was a notable success, according to Bill Dubinsky, Managing Director and CEO of Gallagher Securities.

High-demand for catastrophe bond investments has compressed risk spreads somewhat, resulting in the overall yield of the catastrophe bond market falling back into single digits at 9.94% by the end of December 2024, according to the latest data from Plenum Investments.

Catastrophe bond fund strategies in the UCITS format have averaged a 13.62% return for full-year 2024, according to the latest data from the Plenum CAT Bond UCITS Fund Indices.

The catastrophe bond market delivered the second-highest total-return in its history in 2024, reaching 17.29% for the full-year, according to data from the Swiss Re Cat Bond Performance Indices.

Catastrophe bond and related insurance-linked securities (ILS) market issuance of $4.5 billion in the fourth-quarter was sufficient to take the full-year 2024 total to a record $17.7 billion, while the outstanding market reached a new all-time-high of $49.5 billion, Artemis’ new quarterly cat bond market report shows.

King Ridge Capital Advisors LLC has been launched as a new insurance-linked securities (ILS) investment manager by sector specialists Rick Pagnani and Vijay Manghnani, Artemis understands. We’ve learned that the new company has already reached a sub-advisory agreement to take on portfolio management duties for the awaited first catastrophe bond ETF.

Icosa Investments catastrophe bond fund strategy that was launched at the start of this year has now reached a new milestone in surpassing US $300 million in assets, as success in raising inflows continued in recent months.

Qube Research & Technologies (QRT), a global quantitative and systematic investment manager that specialises in a technology and data-driven approach to allocation across liquid asset classes, has hired former Schroders executive Daniel Ineichen to lead an insurance-linked securities (ILS) strategy.