Insurance-linked investments

RenaissanceRe, the Bermuda based reinsurance company and third-party capital manager, looks set to be the latest to offer a UCITS insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund, with a fund structure now registered in Ireland under its Medici brand, so presumably this will be a cat bond strategy, Artemis has learned.

Ledger Investing, the insurance technology (insurtech) and insurance-linked securities (ILS) focused company, has now surpassed $2 billion in casualty ILS placements with institutional investors.

The Early Bird rate for tickets to attend our upcoming ILS NYC 2025 conference is still available, but with tickets selling fast we’d urge you to register soon to take advantage of it. Today, we wanted to give you an advance view of the companies you can meet if you attend.

Speaking with a number of reinsurance buyers regarding their outlooks for January 2025 renewals, it’s clear most are resigned to attachment points remaining at or near the more elevated levels set in recent years, but they are hopeful that aggregate coverage will become more available, especially from the capital markets.

Investing in insurance-linked securities (ILS) has been beneficial for Australian investment firm MLC Asset Management, with its ILS portfolio delivering an average return of 7.6% per annum across the last 17 years, Head of Alternatives Gareth Abley has said.

Reflecting the ability of the majority of the market to absorb initial mark-to-market losses from hurricane Milton within just a number of weeks, the broad benchmark index for insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds, the Eurekahedge ILS Advisers Index, delivered a positive 0.81% return for the month of October 2024.

The group of catastrophe bond funds in the UCITS format have already reached a year-to-date return of 12.1% by November 15th, as the Plenum CAT Bond UCITS Fund Indices continues to demonstrate the very attractive returns possible from cat bond investments.

Amundi US Investment Management has continued to experience strong demand for its most recently launched dedicated insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund strategy, with the Pioneer CAT Bond Fund now surpassing $500 million in assets under management.

Quaestio Capital SGR S.p.A., an Italian asset manager based in Milan, has launched its first insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund strategy and has raised €130 million for it, with a plan to invest across catastrophe bonds and private ILS arrangements through a multi-manager, fund-of-fund allocation approach.

New global reinsurance start-up Oak Reinsurance (OAK Re) has been approved to begin underwriting in the Lloyd’s market through its Syndicate 2843 from 1/1 2025 and is launching with private equity backing from Bain Capital and private capital support from Hampden Agencies.