Catastrophe bond news

The United Nations forecasts that economic losses from natural disasters and weather catastrophes in Asia-Pacific will reach a stunning $160 billion per-year by 2030, underscoring the size of the protection gap and the need for greater risk capital support as just 8% of those losses are covered by insurance currently.

The $100 million Pelican IV Re Ltd. (Series 2018-1) catastrophe bond, the latest issuance from residual market insurer Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, has now been priced with the coupon settling at the low-end of initial guidance.

Transatlantic Holdings, the parent to Transatlantic Reinsurance (or TransRe), is set to sponsor its first catastrophe bond transaction this year, with the launch to investors of a $200 million Bowline Re Ltd. (Series 2018-1) deal, that will provide the firm with collateralized multi-peril reinsurance coverage.

There is some divergence between forecasts for the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season, with some forecasters opting for above average levels of storm activity, while others like the Weather Company are opting for something closer to an average season.

Swedish state sector pension fund AP3 was one investor whose ILS portfolio stood up to the impacts of the 2017 catastrophe events relatively well, as the pension investor reported a 2.9% return for its investments across the insurance and reinsurance linked investments space.

According to the latest official World Health Organisation (WHO) data, the spread of the recent Lassa fever outbreak in Nigeria has slowed and as a result the number of confirmed cases has risen much more slowly in recent weeks, reducing the risk posed to investors in the World Bank’s pandemic swaps and catastrophe bonds.

Stock exchange listed ILS and collateralized reinsurance investment strategy the Blue Capital Alternative Income Fund, suffered a -2.62% loss in March 2018, as hurricane Irma loss estimates were increased by counterparties, a factor that has negatively affected a number of ILS funds for the month.

Alternative reinsurance capital was once again largely responsible for the expansion of global reinsurance capacity in 2017, as insurance-linked capacity grew 17% to $88 billion by the end of the year, outpacing traditional reinsurance capital significantly, according to Willis Re.

The latest catastrophe bond from Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corporation looks set to follow the market trend in 2018, as the price guidance gets reduced, falling below the initial marketed range for its $100 million Pelican IV Re Ltd. (Series 2018-1) cat bond.

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 22nd April 2018, covering catastrophe bonds, ILS, reinsurance capital and related risk transfer topics. To ensure you never miss a thing subscribe to the weekly Artemis email newsletter updates or get our email alerts for every article we publish.