Collateralized reinsurance news

Bermudian reinsurance firm and third-party capital manager RenaissanceRe has grown its insurance-linked securities (ILS) and managed capital assets to an impressive $3.6 billion, thanks to growth in some of its ILS fund strategies and the launch of the new Langhorne Re venture.

French reinsurance firm SCOR felt the benefit of its retrocession program in 2017, recording net positives to its balance-sheet as it shielded the reinsurer from higher impacts from losses, but SCOR’s insurance-linked securities (ILS) coverage was untouched, as its Atlas cat bond escaped from the 2017 catastrophes.

As insurance and reinsurance specialist XL Group increased its use of alternative capital to $3 billion around the renewals, it did so by leveraging its ILS fund manager New Ocean Capital Management, as well as through the addition of a new property quota share deal with third-party capital partners.

Argo Group is making a strategic shift to originate more risks for investors, as the company finds increasing interest from third-parties in accessing the returns of the re/insurers underwriting performance, according to CEO Mark E. Watson III.

Global specialty insurance and reinsurance company Brit Ltd’s new open-ended collateralised reinsurance fund vehicle raised $102.5 million from investors for the 2018 underwriting year, which the firm called “the next step in Brit’s strategy to build long term relationships with the capital markets.”

The improved rate environment meant that specialty insurance and reinsurance player Lancashire Holdings took the opportunity to increase the amount of limit sold by third-party capital vehicle Kinesis Capital Management by roughly 30% at the renewals, according to CEO Alex Maloney.

MultiStrat continues to close new casualty linked securities (CLS) transactions, with another deal announced this week taking the total capital invested in these unique casualty ILS deals to $60 million, covering estimated premiums of $230 million.

Third-party collateralized reinsurance capital unit Kinesis Capital Management displayed a resilient set of results in the fourth-quarter of 2017 for parent specialty insurance and reinsurance group Lancashire Holdings Limited and after the challenging year, CEO Alex Maloney feels the market has turned a corner.

Insurance Australia Group (IAG) has benefited from its aggregate reinsurance in the first-half of its financial year, with a $120 million recovery from its reinsurers helping to reduce volatility from catastrophe losses.

Global specialty insurance and reinsurance company Brit Ltd. has increased the size of its fully-collateralized reinsurance sidecar Versutus Ltd. to $187 million for 2018, which alongside its other capital markets activities takes third-party capital managed at the firm to $400 million.