retrocessional

Lancashire Holdings, the Bermuda and UK based provider of specialty insurance products, has announced the formation of Accordion Reinsurance Ltd. a fully collateralised sidecar reinsurance facility. Accordion will be flexibly capitalised up to $250m and will act as a quote share reinsurer of Lancashire Insurance Company Ltd.

CATCo, a specialist Bermuda based investment manager who operate the London listed CATCo Reinsurance Opportunities Fund, announced yesterday that they have successfully raised an additional $121.1m (after commissions and expenses) through the issuance of over 124m C-shares with institutional investors. The offering was the first from a proposed placing of 400m new shares.

You would be forgiven for thinking that the recent spate of catastrophes and natural disasters had left re/insurers sobbing quietly as they contemplated the prospects of an unprofitable year in 2011. That’s not the case though, as recent quarterly reports have shown many re/insurers predicting the return of rising reinsurance rates this summer.

Moody’s, the rating agency, has published a report (available here to subscribers to their service) looking at capital levels in the catastrophe reinsurance market and conclude that there is ample capital entering the market so reinsurers are unlikely to see a let up in competition.

CATCo, the specialist Bermuda based investment manager with a fund listed on the London Stock Exchange, have published their third monthly update since their CATCO Reinsurance Opportunities Fund’s inception at the start of the year. The fund saw a return of 0.82% in March and year to date has returned 2.8% which is not far […]

Aliseo Reinsurance SCC has been founded in Barbados and yesterday announced its intention to start operating with an initial capitalization of $300m in January 2011. Aliseo Re is targeting the global retrocession market and focused on providing catastrophe reinsurance protection.