Twelve Capital lifts UCITS cat bond fund 38% to reach $550m

Twelve Capital, the Zurich headquartered insurance and reinsurance linked investment fund manager, has continued to raise new capital for its UCITS catastrophe bond fund strategy, taking the total close to US $550 million.

Last July we explained that the manager had successfully attracted new investor inflows to its UCITS cat bond fund, lifting the Irish domiciled structure to almost $400 million of assets under management.

The success has continued and now Twelve Capital has added around 38% to the assets held in this flagship UCITS catastrophe bond fund, reaching almost $550 million thanks to new investor commitments gained, all within the last two years.

The ILS fund manager has been focusing on distribution activities in a growing range of countries, with inflows to this cat bond fund coming thanks to distribution activities across Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands and the UK.

In total Twelve Capital now manages more than US $1.3 billion in liquid catastrophe bond strategies and it is now approaching a 10-year track record for the asset class, a milestone it will achieve later this year.

The managers cat bond fund had performed relatively well over the last few years, when catastrophe losses have beset the ILS sector.

The cat bond fund has continued to deliver an attractive return to its investors, despite the challenges faced in the market environment, the manager noted.

Florian Steiger, who manages Twelve Capital’s Cat Bond Strategy commented, “The ongoing repricing with Cat Bond spreads at multi-year highs allows investors to enter the Cat Bond market at an attractive time.

“We continue to see strong interest in the asset class in general and into our Strategies and look forward to growing our Cat Bond business further.”

Urs Ramseier, CEO and CIO at Twelve Capital added, “The strong performance of Twelve’s Cat Bond Strategy highlights the benefits of its knowledge across the entire balance sheet of insurance companies. Its products and expertise include Insurance Debt, Private ILS and Insurance Equities, which provide significant insight into sector trends and investment themes.

“As Twelve Capital nears its 10th anniversary this year, we have been upgrading our analytical approach and investment processes in order to ensure continued investment success in the coming years.”

Investor appetite for catastrophe bond investments and other reinsurance assets remains high, helping managers like Twelve Capital to boost their asset base.

Issuance has been sufficient to soak up most of the fresh demand so far, but needs to continue at a similar rate through the year to managers to make the most of still-growing investor appetite for alternatives.

Twelve Capital manages roughly $3.8 billion of ILS and other reinsurance linked assets. The manager said that it is to focus on the growth of its own-brand ILS funds, having previously managed white label cat bond fund strategies for private banks in Switzerland.

Twelve Capital is featured in our Insurance-Linked Securities Investment Managers & Funds Directory, which currently lists managers controlling over $100 billion of ILS and reinsurance linked assets.