Wildfire cat bond news

The number of residential, commercial and other properties lost to the ongoing wildfire outbreak in California has risen by another 12% since yesterday, with the total number of structures reported as destroyed reaching 17,354, suggesting the industry loss for insurance, reinsurance and ILS market interests keeps rising.

The main mutual insurance-linked securities (ILS) and listed reinsurance linked investment fund strategies fell again on Friday as the threat of losses from ongoing California wildfires resulted in a decline in their share prices, while a stock-exchange listed strategy also declined through last week.

The Amundi Pioneer managed interval-style mutual insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund, the Pioneer ILS Interval Fund, is expected to face a “modest” impact from the ongoing California wildfire outbreak.

Catastrophe bond fund managers have been marking down their holdings in Pacific Gas & Electric Co’s (PG&E) $200m Cal Phoenix Re Ltd. (Series 2018-1) cat bond on the expectation that it could face a total loss of the utility is found liable for the Camp wildfire in California.

Catastrophe risk modelling specialist RMS has estimated that industry insured losses from the Camp and Woolsey wildfires in California could reach as much as $13 billion, which is aligned with the opinions of insurance, reinsurance and ILS market sources.

The amount of property, residential and commercial structures lost in the Camp and Woolsey wildfires in California has risen significantly again since last week, with the number of structures destroyed now almost 15,500 and the loss for insurance, reinsurance and ILS market interests seen even higher.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co’s (PG&E) $200m Cal Phoenix Re Ltd. (Series 2018-1) catastrophe bond has had its secondary market price marked down heavily by brokers who suspect that the cat bond will face a significant, if not total, loss due to the ongoing wildfire outbreak.

The toll of destruction from the ongoing outbreak of California wildfires continues to rise, as the number of structures destroyed has risen again to 12,406, suggesting an increasing loss for insurance, reinsurance and ILS market interests and pointing to an industry loss at the high-end, or above, current estimates.

According to specialist insurance-linked securities (ILS) and reinsurance investments manager Twelve Capital, one of the USAA sponsored catastrophe bond tranches and certain private ILS transactions are at risk of facing losses due to the ongoing California wildfire outbreak.

We reported yesterday in one of our articles on the ongoing California wildfire outbreak that electrical utility Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (PG&E) has been sued over the cause of the Camp wildfire, a move which could put investors in its $200m Cal Phoenix Re Ltd. (Series 2018-1) at risk of losses.