Insurance-linked investments

Private equity and alternative investment specialist Apollo Global Management has taken an enlarged stake in Athene Holding Ltd., the life and retirement reinsurance firm that it already majority-owned, while investment commitments for its Athene Co-Invest Reinsurance Affiliate (ACRA) sidecar vehicle have risen to $3 billion.

The Insurance Development Forum (IDF) considers insurance-linked securities (ILS) to be an “important part” of the work it aims to do, according to Secretary General Ekhosuehi Iyahen.

As part of its efforts to run-off its portfolios of retrocessional reinsurance and return capital to its investors, Markel CATCo Investment Management has executed its first share buyback for the exchange listed ILS fund CATCo Reinsurance Opportunities Fund Ltd.

Giant Canadian pension funds Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) have together invested $500 million in Constellation Insurance Holdings, a start-up launched by the former Prosperity Life CEO Anurag Chandra.

Reinsurance, catastrophe, climate and weather risk-linked investment manager Nephila Capital will add a new primary source of risk from another eastern U.S. state, after its managing general agency (MGA) Velocity Risk Underwriters LLC has expanded into New Jersey.

The Government Superannuation Fund Authority of New Zealand, an autonomous entity that manages the pension assets of state sector employees, said that its allocations to insurance-linked securities (ILS) remain “appropriate to objectives” despite having fallen to a negative return in the last year.

Loss creep from prior year events has struck the in run-off listed insurance-linked securities (ILS) investment fund strategy, managed by ILS and collateralized reinsurance specialist fund manager Blue Capital Management.

Insurance-linked securities (ILS) in their various forms are “increasingly front and center” when it comes to selecting risk transfer and investment options, broker Willis Towers Watson believes.

Catastrophe bond funds are reporting bumper September returns, in some cases beating their records, as they benefit from the full recovery of hurricane Dorian exposed cat bond valuations.

Investors in RenaissanceRe’s insurance-linked securities (ILS) vehicle Fibonacci Re Ltd. have been able to redeem some more of their capital, while one tranche has now been allowed to fully mature and the other extended further.