Private cat bond news

Two tranches of privately placed catastrophe bond notes from the $250 million Artex SAC Limited – Aquarelle Notes transaction that came to market in 2021 and was thought to be the largest private cat bond ever, have been through a variable reset process at the request of the ceding insurer.

On the heels of a record year for property catastrophe bond issuance, momentum continued in the first quarter of 2022 as sponsors brought approximately $3 billion of traditional 144a transactions to market.

The outstanding market for catastrophe bonds and related insurance-linked securities (ILS) reached a new all-time high at the end of the first-quarter of 2022, as a busy start to the year took Artemis’ measure of the sector to $37.5 billion.

Aon’s Bermuda domiciled Class 3 and Class C insurer and segregated accounts company White Rock Insurance (SAC) Ltd. has issued a fifth transaction in the Japanese Asagao private catastrophe bond series, with a $16.2 million Asagao V completed.

The cyber-attack threat is elevated this year and as the need for risk transfer grows, the re/insurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market would benefit from considering ways to formalise what losses are included under cyber ILS deals, according to Tom Johansmeyer, Head of PCS.

Eclipse Re Ltd., the Horseshoe managed private syndicated collateralised reinsurance note, private catastrophe bond issuance and reinsurance transformer platform, has completed the first issuance we’ve seen of 2022, with a $75 million Eclipse Re Ltd. (Series 2022-1A) transaction coming to light.

In the first of a series of sponsor showcase video interviews for the upcoming Artemis ILS NYC 2022 conference (held April 22nd in New York City), we welcomed Tom Johansmeyer, Head of PCS, who joined us to talk all things political violence, unrest and cyber risk.

Almost $110 million of Seaside Re private catastrophe bond transactions have had their maturity dates extended, suggesting that these privately placed ILS deals, that were issued by German reinsurance firm Hannover Re’s segregated accounts vehicle, Kaith Re Ltd., might be considered at-risk of loss.

For investors looking at insurance-linked securities (ILS), in order to gain the full diversifying benefits of an allocation to the asset class, it is important to look to the private ILS and collateralised reinsurance segment as well as catastrophe bonds, Zeba Ahmad, Alternatives Director at Schroders has said.

Global reinsurance giant Hannover Re has facilitated the issuance of another $84.5 million of Seaside Re private catastrophe bonds for 2022, with another eight issuances from its Kaith Re transformer vehicle coming to light.