ILS funds news, insurance linked securities or ILS fund news

White Mountains Insurance Group has reported that the value of its investments into insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds has risen by 211%, as additional allocations to Elementum Advisors, the ILS fund manager it has an ownership stake in, lifted the total considerably.

With seasonality set to boost already high returns for insurance-linked securities (ILS), Chin Liu of Amundi US Investment Management is expecting “solid returns” and sees a positive outlook for both catastrophe bonds and other ILS strategies.

Higher assets under management and improved returns in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds and sidecar structures managed by Swiss Re’s Alternative Capital Partners (ACP) division have driven a significant increase in fee income and commissions earned by the reinsurer in the first-half of 2023.

Speaking today during the Markel second-quarter earnings call, Jeremy Noble, President of Insurance explained that the team at insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund manager Nephila Capital are working hard to make the most of the attractive reinsurance pricing environment.

We are delighted to announce two senior keynote speakers for our next insurance-linked securities (ILS) market conference, Artemis London 2023 on Tuesday September 5th, with the Treasurer of the World Bank and CFO of Lloyd’s joining us on the day to share their insights with attendees.

At the end of the second-quarter of 2023, assets under management at Nephila Capital, one of the largest insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund management operations in the market, were stable at $7.2 billion and its parent Markel Group reported that revenues from entities managed by Nephila rose slightly in the quarter.

Analysing the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market outlook for the third-quarter of 2023, K2 Advisors, the hedge fund focused investment management unit of Franklin Templeton, believes spreads could tighten further, especially in catastrophe bonds, but it remains constructive on ILS and has now signalled an overweight view on industry-loss warranties (ILW’s).

The acceleration of activity in the catastrophe bond market in 2023, as cedent demand for covers in the upper-layers of their reinsurance towers has risen and the ILS market has responded to it, is seen as something that will positively benefit the bottom-line at RenaissanceRe.

Pure catastrophe bond funds as a group were up an impressive 7.17% for the first-half of 2023, narrowly beating the 6.91% average return of the private ILS funds that invest in collateralised reinsurance and retrocession opportunities as well, the latest data from ILS Advisers shows.

Aon’s private catastrophe bond platform Randolph Re has completed a new issuance of $45 million of Randolph Re (Series 2023-3) private cat bond notes that are exposed to wildfire risks, for an unnamed sponsor that we assume will again be California headquartered property casualty insurer Mercury Insurance.