Catastrophe bond news

Investor optimism remains strong for catastrophe bonds and reinsurance sidecars, but when it comes to collateralized reinsurance that optimism still lags, but institutional investors are positively working to address issues that have made allocating fresh capital more of a challenge in private ILS and collateralized reinsurance, according to Artex.

With catastrophe bond market yields still elevated by historical standards, Dirk Schmelzer, Head Portfolio Manager for ILS / CAT Bonds and a Partner at Plenum Investments AG, believes catastrophe bond funds can deliver high single-digit to low double-digit returns in 2025, on a no loss basis.

US insurance firm Progressive is the latest to seek an upsized execution from its latest venture to the catastrophe bond market, with the firm now seeking a 53% upsized $345 million in multi-peril reinsurance from this Bonanza Re Ltd. (Series 2024-1) issuance.

US primary insurer Allstate has now finalised one of the largest catastrophe bonds in its history, with its new Sanders Re II Ltd. (Series 2024-3) issuance now priced to provide the company $650 million of reinsurance protection, some 86% more than the initial target for this deal.

There is now less than two months to go until our upcoming Artemis ILS NYC 2025 conference in New York on February 7th next year, and today we are delighted to announce four more expert speakers you can hear from on the day, if you register to attend our event.

The Board of the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) has today approved a $485 million budget line item for ceded reinsurance and catastrophe bond spend for 2025, which is up 22% on the $397 million spent on protection for 2024.

Having come to market with one unsized tranche of notes, Liberty Mutual’s new Mystic Re IV Ltd. (Series 2025-1) catastrophe bond issuance has now been fully-sized, with a target set for $325 million of indemnity reinsurance on both an occurrence and aggregate basis, Artemis understands.

Mapfre Re has now successfully priced its debut catastrophe bond, with the Recoletos Re DAC (Series 2024-1) issuance now secured to provide the reinsurance company with an upsized $125 million of retrocession, with the notes priced below the initial guidance range that had been offered.

American Family Mutual Insurance Company (AmFam) has for the second time raised the target size of its latest catastrophe bond, with now $275 million in collateralized reinsurance protection being sought from the Four Lakes Re Ltd. (Series 2024-1) cat bond issuance, Artemis has learned.

Further reflecting the high-demand for new catastrophe bond issues at this time, the Armor Re II Ltd. (Series 2024-2) issuance for sponsor American Coastal Insurance Company (AmCoastal) has increased in size again, with now up to $200 million in Florida named storm reinsurance protection sought.