The Longpoint Re II Ltd. catastrophe bond from Travelers has now completed. The $500m deal (which upsized from an initial $250m) has taken the total issuance in the cat bond market during 2009 over the $3b mark. There are deals in the pipeline but at this stage we’re not sure whether they will be able to come to market during 2009. Still it’s been a bumper year as evidenced by the general demand for notes from investors and the size of this latest transaction (the largest transaction of 2009). A copy of the announcement from Travelers is below. You can read more details on Longpoint Re II Ltd. and all other catastrophe bonds completed this year in our Deal Directory.
View all of our Artemis Live video interviews and subscribe to our podcast.
All of our Artemis Live insurance-linked securities (ILS), catastrophe bonds and reinsurance video content and video interviews can be accessed online.
Our Artemis Live podcast can be subscribed to using the typical podcast services providers, including Apple, Google, Spotify and more.
Travelers Announces Catastrophe Reinsurance Transaction With Longpoint Re II Ltd.
NEW YORK, Dec 21, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) — The Travelers Companies, Inc. (NYSE:TRV) today announced that it has entered into two reinsurance agreements with Longpoint Re II Ltd. (“Longpoint Re II”), a newly formed Cayman Islands insurance company, each providing up to $250 million of reinsurance from losses resulting from certain hurricane events in the northeastern United States. The reinsurance agreements, entered into on December 18, 2009, provide protection for covered events occurring before or on December 18, 2012 and December 18, 2013, respectively. In connection with entering into the reinsurance agreements, Longpoint Re II successfully completed a $500 million catastrophe bond offering comprised of $250 million of Series 2009-1 Class A Principal At-Risk Variable Rate Notes due December 24, 2012 and $250 million of Series 2009-1 Class B Principal At-Risk Variable Rate Notes due December 24, 2013.
The catastrophe bond program with Longpoint Re II will replace Travelers’ existing catastrophe bond program with Longpoint Re Ltd., which will expire in May 2010. The reinsurance purchased from Longpoint Re II is intended to work in conjunction with Travelers’ traditional reinsurance to provide $1 billion of protection for Northeast hurricane events in excess of $2.25 billion of losses.
Amounts payable under the two new reinsurance agreements with Longpoint Re II will be based on an index created by applying predetermined percentages to insured industry losses in each state in the covered area as reported by Property Claim Services (“PCS”) a division of Insurance Services Office, Inc., owned by Verisk Analytics, Inc. The calculation of index losses is designed to approximate Travelers’ actual losses from any covered event. The amount of actual losses and index losses from any covered event may differ; however, in no event can Travelers recover more than its actual losses. The principal amount of each catastrophe bond will be reduced by any amounts paid to Travelers under the respective reinsurance agreement.
In the event of a covered loss, Travelers will be entitled to recover amounts under the reinsurance agreements if the index losses for a single occurrence reach an initial attachment amount of $2.25 billion. The full $250 million coverage of each agreement is available on a proportional basis until index losses reach an initial exhaustion amount of $2.85 billion. The attachment and exhaustion amounts will be reset annually to maintain modeled probabilities of attachment and expected loss on the catastrophe bonds equal to the initial modeled probabilities of attachment and expected loss.
