Insurance Linked Investments

Kathleen Faries, CEO of Artex Capital Solutions, the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market service provider arm of Artex Risk Solutions, has emphasised a strategic focus on mergers and acquisitions, talent expansion, and building a dedicated carrier outsourcing practice heading into 2025.

Reflecting the ability of the majority of the market to absorb initial mark-to-market losses from hurricane Milton within just a number of weeks, the broad benchmark index for insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds, the Eurekahedge ILS Advisers Index, delivered a positive 0.81% return for the month of October 2024.

The group of catastrophe bond funds in the UCITS format have already reached a year-to-date return of 12.1% by November 15th, as the Plenum CAT Bond UCITS Fund Indices continues to demonstrate the very attractive returns possible from cat bond investments.

Amundi US Investment Management has continued to experience strong demand for its most recently launched dedicated insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund strategy, with the Pioneer CAT Bond Fund now surpassing $500 million in assets under management.

Quaestio Capital SGR S.p.A., an Italian asset manager based in Milan, has launched its first insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund strategy and has raised €130 million for it, with a plan to invest across catastrophe bonds and private ILS arrangements through a multi-manager, fund-of-fund allocation approach.

It’s official. If the current pipeline of new deals all complete before year-end, at their current targeted sizes or larger, then the catastrophe bond market will set a new record for primary issuance in 2024 of roughly $16.54 billion, according to Artemis’ Deal Directory data.

New global reinsurance start-up Oak Reinsurance (OAK Re) has been approved to begin underwriting in the Lloyd’s market through its Syndicate 2843 from 1/1 2025 and is launching with private equity backing from Bain Capital and private capital support from Hampden Agencies.

We’ve now published the full video of our recent ILS Market Outlook 2025 live webinar, that was held on October 31st 2024, featuring insurance-linked security (ILS) industry experts who joined us to discuss the state of the catastrophe bond and ILS market and provide their outlook for the next year.

Making adjustments to the exposure of insurance-linked securities (ILS) portfolios based on inputs gleaned from the early July hurricane season forecast can drive opportunities to generate excess returns in reinsurance, according to a study from Euler ILS Partners and Tropical Storm Risk (TSR).

Pension investment firm PGGM, allocating on behalf of end-client the Dutch pension fund PFZW, subscribed for an additional $175 million of shares in its RenaissanceRe managed joint-venture rated reinsurance underwriting vehicle Vermeer Re during the third-quarter of 2024.