RenaissanceRe Upsilon Fund Ltd.

RenaissanceRe, the Bermuda-headquartered global reinsurance firm and one of the biggest users of third-party capital within its business, is expected to capitalise on the retrocession market opportunity being seen this renewal season.

Bermudian reinsurance firm RenaissanceRe reported an underwriting loss for the third-quarter of 2019 on the back of the impacts of hurricane Dorian and typhoon Jebi, but at the same time has returned significantly more capital to its third-party investors.

Insurance-linked securities (ILS) are integral to the business of insurance and reinsurance and an ideal solution for bringing capital to the big problems facing society, according to RenaissanceRe CEO Kevin O’Donnell.

RenaissanceRe deployed more capacity into retrocession again at the recent mid-year reinsurance renewals, managing to provide continuity to some protection buyers that were missing the availability of Markel CATCo’s retro product.

RenaissanceRe said that it raised over $700 million of new third-party capital from investors for its joint-venture and insurance-linked securities (ILS) vehicles in the second-quarter of 2019.

Bermudian reinsurance firm RenaissanceRe has promoted Matthew Neuber to the position of Corporate Treasurer, taking on the role from Aditya Dutt who remains the lead on RenRe’s Ventures business (which includes much of the firms ILS activities), as well as corporate development and M&A.

RenaissanceRe sees the potential to raise new third-party reinsurance capital for the June 1st renewals, as its view of the market particularly in retrocession suggests profitable opportunities will be available, CEO Kevin O’Donnell explained recently.

Bermudian reinsurance firm and third-party ILS capital manager RenaissanceRe has reported that it ceded much of its growth in catastrophe business to its Upsilon vehicle in the first-quarter, while its fee income from third-party capital grew year-on-year.

RenaissanceRe’s fee income earned from third-party capital management activities, joint-ventures, managed ILS funds and other structured reinsurance backed by capital from investors rose to $90 million for 2018.

RenaissanceRe could be on the hook for an enlarged share of losses from the current California wildfire outbreaks given the firm had completed two large wildfire excess casualty deals in the second and third quarters of this year, with its Upsilon vehicle taking some of the risk in the latter transaction.