June 2015/1

Unipol's debut catastrophe bond has increased by a third to reach EUR200mn ($226mn), sources told Trading Risk.

For many European sponsors Bermuda is a favoured jurisdiction for conducting ILS business.

Parametric launch at Guy Carpenter; TWIA expands reinsurance; Tropical Storm Risk decreases forecast; Alamo Re 2014 attachment resets; Texas floods could hit $1bn; JBA launches modelling platform; Marsh: primary market crowded; Pine Brook supports start-up

Universal Insurance Holdings has bought back a fifth of the stake that Nephila affiliate Ananke Catastrophe Investments purchased in the company in December last year.

A combined Axis-PartnerRe hopes to earn an additional $60mn a year by 2017 from managing third-party capital.

The US state-backed hurricane insurance pools followed a mixed strategy in the 2015 reinsurance renewals as two of the top three lifted their risk transfer by a third compared to 2014, while the other dropped its cover by almost 20 percent.

The California Earthquake Authority (CEA) placed $922mn in reinsurance limit at the January renewals, including almost $330mn on a two-year basis, according to documents presented at a board meeting in late May.

Lloyd's may be seen as an expensive place to do business, but the Corporation's director of performance management Tom Bolt argued in a recent presentation that this idea is exaggerated.

Canada Pension Plan buys Enstar stake; Australia's Future Fund hires Elementum; Oppenheimer cat bond fund shrinks by $80mn

The ILS market may absorb around 10 percent of losses from recent Australian storms, sources told Trading Risk.

The founders of $1.5bn start-up Fidelis have shifted their underwriting focus to the reinsurance market and away from initial plans to weight the portfolio more heavily towards specialty insurance.

Demand for high-yielding catastrophe bonds has remained strong on the secondary market, pushing up prices for such securities above par.

American International Group (AIG)'s head of capital markets Samir Shah says that parametric cat bond triggers will be the key to broadening the ILS investor base and making the market larger and more liquid.

USAA has once again tapped into strong investor demand for high-risk, high-return cat bonds in the current low-yield environment.

One debut sponsor entered the cat bond market last month as issuance slowed down ahead of the start of the hurricane season.

Swiss Re has slightly decreased the size of its global Sector Re sidecar for the second year running, Trading Risk understands

The orthodox history of the convergence market revolution is that the catastrophe reinsurance establishment has been well and truly overturned by the growth of the broader ILS markets

XL-Catlin's $135mn joint venture New Ocean Asset Management has significantly expanded its team in a sign of its intent to build out the platform, Trading Risk has learned

Nephila Capital is among the new buyers that have been trying out the indemnity retro market during the mid-year renewals, Trading Risk understands