Insurance-linked investments

In an announcement today GAM Investments (GAM) and Fermat Capital Management (Fermat) said that they have reached a mutual agreement that will see Fermat becoming the sole manager of the offshore GAM FCM Cat Bond Fund, with GAM to have no ongoing involvement in the strategy.

The GAM Star Cat Bond Fund strategy has experienced a meaningful outflow of investor capital we understand, with the UCITS fund’s assets under management declining by approximately 25%, or around US $650 million, just in the month of April 2025.

Hiscox CFO Paul Cooper said today there remains “healthy interest” in catastrophe bonds at higher layers of the reinsurance tower, but also noted that the effect of the California wildfires could weigh on ILS fund performance fee income in both the organisation’s H1’25 and FY’25 results.

Hiscox Group has reported that assets under management (AUM) at Hiscox ILS, the dedicated insurance-linked securities (ILS) management arm of the global re/insurer, dipped by $100 million to $1.3 billion in the first-quarter on the effects of the California wildfires.

Fund management revenues earned through the activities of its insurance-linked securities (ILS) investment management business Nephila Capital rose 33% for owner Markel in the first-quarter of 2025, with the company reporting they reached the highest level in at least three years for the period, at $25.5 million.

March 2025 was a positive month for the insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund sector, with a strong 0.82% average return across the sector according to the ILS Advisers Fund Index.

Northern Re, the collateralized reinsurance company that provides investors with access to the returns of its long-tail casualty underwriting business, has announced raising an additional $100 million from existing and new institutional investor partners.

Hiscox ILS, the dedicated ILS investment management arm of the global insurance and reinsurance group, has hired Jack Ellison, formerly of Walkers, as its new Head of Legal.

In an increasingly volatile and uncertain financial world where the investment landscape has been exposed to unpredictable shocks, pension funds have been among the most affected by equity market declines and this is expected to further heighten the desire to diversify their asset portfolios.

The team behind the Brookmont Catastrophic Bond ETF (ILS) says its strategy is built on deep diversification and a long-term aim to outperform the broader catastrophe bond market on a risk-adjusted basis.