Wayfare Re casualty sidecar a modern, scalable partnership with Antares: Ascot CFO Wilcox

The recent successful launch of $500 million casualty reinsurance sidecar Wayfare Re is a key development as Ascot Group continues to build out its Leadline Capital Partners business and represents a modern, scalable partnership with an appropriate investor in Antares, Mark Wilcox, Group Chief Financial Officer of Ascot told Artemis in an interview.

Speaking with us around the 2025 Monte Carlo Rendez-vous event, Wilcox explained the importance of finding the right partners, identifying aligned risk opportunities to ceded and how this can result in an enhancement of capital resilience for a re/insurer like Ascot.

Recall that, Ascot Group, the specialist global re/insurance underwriter, partnered with credit focused investor Antares Capital to launch a Bermuda based reinsurance sidecar vehicle named Wayfare Re which was announced at the end of July.

The company called it a key achievement for Ascot, as it continues to build-out its third-party capital unit Leadline Capital Partners.

Going into more detail in our interview, Wilcox explained, “Wayfare Re is our first third-party capital outside of property and focuses on long tail casualty business. Wayfare Re represents a modern, scalable partnership that combines Antares’ private credit expertise with Ascot’s outstanding casualty underwriting capabilities. This is an innovative structure supporting Ascot Casualty offerings in the US and Bermuda markets.

“The deal is a testament to Ascot’s unique position in the re/insurance market along with its leading underwriting franchise and long-term client and distribution partner relationships. This is another key step in the development of Leadline as part of the strategic goal of enhancing capital resilience for the Ascot Group.”

He then told us why casualty risks are not for every investor and so why finding the right partner is critical.

“A casualty sidecar is a different investment proposition than a traditional property focused sidecar. A property focused sidecar is generally a short-term venture, often opportunistic or market dependent, but the majority of the result is known shortly after the risk period, and the returns are driven by the underwriting result,” Wilcox told us.

Adding that, “A casualty sidecar is a longer-term investment proposition. The results take many years to emerge and a substantial part of the return is generated from the investment of the float. It requires a different investor, one that has a longer investment time horizon.”

In Antares, Ascot found such an investment partner for its Wayfare Re sidecar vehicle and Wilcox said that alignment between the pair is strong in the deal.

“With Wayfare Re, we brought our high-quality underwriting expertise together with an investor that has a world class investment operation. An investor that can manage a portion of the float generated in the vehicle. This helps provide an inherent alignment of interests and an opportunity to develop a long term mutually beneficial partnership,” Wilcox stated.

Continuing to say that, “Our goals in partnering with an investment manager was to find one that has an excellent long-term track record, an experienced management team, a strong balance sheet with stable ownership, and excellent corporate governance. A firm that can put its balance sheet to work and invest over a longer investment time horizon. And importantly, a firm that has a differentiated alpha generating investment strategy and one that pairs well with the cash flows associated with longer-tail casualty business. Antares ticked all the boxes and is an excellent partner.”

Wilcox sees opportunities to partner with investors across the Ascot business, with the Leadline Capital Partners unit now providing a focused business unit that can look to cultivate further relationships with the right partners, for the right risks.

“Leadline Capital Partners is our brand for third party capital,” Wilcox said. “Over the years, we have added products and brought in new investors to Leadline. It is a 100% aligned third party capital model, meaning we only bring investors into risks which retain the majority of the risk ourselves.

“We will continue to pursue investors that value our underwriting expertise. For longer-tail business, we will also continue to pursue investors that bring differentiated investment capabilities to the table. There are a wide range of investors interested in this space across property and casualty products and these include family offices, pensions, endowments, ILS funds and for longer tail business, investment managers.”

Read all of our interviews with ILS market and reinsurance sector professionals here.