Retrocession news

Reinsurance and retrocession linked specialist ILS investment manager Markel CATCo Investment Management has continued to deliver higher investment fee income to parent Markel Corporation in the second-quarter, as the increased assets under management contributed 87% more revenue this year.

Blue Capital Reinsurance Holdings Ltd., a unit of Sompo International Holdings Ltd., continued to feel the effects of hurricane Irma losses in Q2, but anticipates its underwritten portfolio producing a 100 basis point higher rate-on-line thanks to price improvements.

Bermuda headquartered pure-play reinsurance firm PartnerRe has significantly increased the amount of collateralized quota share retrocessional support its portfolio receives from the capital markets, with growth evident in the firms Lorenz Re sidecar vehicle at the mid-point of 2018.

Bermudian reinsurer and third-party reinsurance capital management firm RenaissanceRe has continued to increase the size of its collateralized reinsurance and retrocession vehicle Upsilon, issuing another set of shares to investors during the second-quarter, increasing the overall size of the vehicle to more than $1 billion for the first time.

After picking up roughly 20% of the roughly $92 billion of insurance industry losses from major hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, half of the top 20 global reinsurance firms tracked by rating agency Standard & Poor’s have actually increased their exposure to natural catastrophe risks.

French headquartered global reinsurance player SCOR has reported its second-quarter results today, which reflect further expansion in the firms appetite for risk in the better priced 2018 market environment, but also reflect the deceleration of pricing after the January peak.

Digital risk trading start-up Akinova, which is developing an “electronic marketplace for the transfer and trading of (re)insurance risks,” has signed up Pierre Francotte, the former CEO of Euroclear as an advisor.

Bermudian reinsurance firm and third-party capital manager RenaissanceRe will have pleased shareholders and the institutional investors backing its insurance-linked investment strategies with its second-quarter results, as it revealed a significant drop in loss estimates for the 2017 catastrophe events.

There’s potential for the expanding insurance-linked securities (ILS) market to play a meaningful role outside of the natural catastrophe space, however, on long-term business, someone must take the tail risk, says Ulrich Wallin, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of reinsurance giant Hannover Re.

Markel CATCo Investment Management Ltd., the retrocession and reinsurance linked investment manager, has raised an additional $700 million of capital from its existing investor base to meet an increased demand for its products at the mid-year renewals this year, Artemis has learned.