Private cat bond news

Catastrophe bond issuance is on track to make this first-quarter at least the second busiest start to any year on record, with Artemis’ Deal Directory data already projecting close to $5.86 billion of cat bond issuance for Q1 2026, only falling behind the total from last year at this stage.

Hannover Re’s Bermuda-domiciled transformer vehicle Kaith Re Ltd. has issued $75 million of Seaside Re private catastrophe bond notes across seven numbered series, with all exposed to US property catastrophe risks, providing reinsurance or retrocession for an unknown sponsor or sponsors.

2025 is the year all headline catastrophe bond records fell, and the first time annual issuance exceeded $20 billion, rising by 45% year-on-year to $25.6 billion across full 144A and private transactions we analysed. It was supported by record fourth quarter issuance of over $7 billion, the fifth-largest quarter ever, Artemis’ new quarterly catastrophe bond […]

Issuance of Rule 144A property catastrophe bonds in 2025 surpassed the $20 billion milestone today as the settlement of the largest wildfire cat bond ever seen, sponsored by the California FAIR Plan, has taken the total for the year-to-date to just over $20.7 billion, Artemis data shows.

With the settlement today of two new catastrophe bonds, the 144A marketplace for new cat bond issuance has now just reached the $20 billion milestone in 2025, while including private deals the total amount of settled issuance tracked by Artemis this year is now $20.62 billion.

Another new private catastrophe bond issuance from the Eclipse Re Ltd. transformer vehicle has come to light, the eighth from the platform in 2025 so far. At $100 million in size, this Eclipse Re Ltd. (Series 2025-8A) cat bond lite has become the biggest from the issuer this year.

With the pipeline of new 144A catastrophe bonds growing as new deals get launched, the market is now officially on track for the first $20 billion plus calendar year of issuance in 2025.

With the catastrophe bond market pipeline growing for the fourth-quarter, Artemis is on course to track its first $20 billion year of issuance in 2025, as our extensive and long-standing data set of Rule 144A and private cat bond transactions now has that milestone in sight.

With catastrophe bond and related ILS issuance set to exceed the record $20 billion figure by the end of 2025, this momentum is expected to persist, as Brad Adderley, Partner at global law firm Appleby suggests that issuance will stay at least at its current size for the time being.

A new private catastrophe bond has been issued by German reinsurance company Hannover Re’s Bermuda-based structure Kaith Re Ltd., with $15 million of LI Re (Series 2025-2) notes issued to support what is assumed to be a privately placed collateralized and securitized catastrophe reinsurance arrangement for an unknown sponsor.