July 2011/1

Aon Benfield Securities has completed a $160mn private cat bond placement for a Japanese insurer with a handful of large ILS fund managers, Trading Risk can reveal.

As Hurricane Irene bears down on the East coast of the US, brokers have transacted livecat industry loss warranty

Goldman Sachs trader, Sung Yim, has left the firm after four years specialising in insurance linked securities and industry loss warranties (ILW), Trading Risk can reveal.

The BBC pension scheme recently awarded a £76mn ($124mn) mandate to Nephila Capital to invest in insurance-linked risk, joining the growing body of pension funds investing in the sector.

Investment manager AQR Capital Management has confirmed that it is setting up a reinsurance investment team led by ex-Magnetar executive Andrew Sterge, as revealed by Trading Risk last month.

The links between the performance of ILS assets and the general stockmarket are weakening as the nervousness of the financial crisis recedes, according to the latest quarterly report from Lane Financial.

Former Manulife P&C chief Andreas Kusay says he is confident his $300mn retro start-up Aliseo Re will be writing business for January 2012, despite the launch delay.

(Re)insurer Alterra and private equity partner Stone Point Capital opened up entry to their recently launched New Point IV sidecar to six external investors.

The ILS asset class has delivered solid double-digit returns to investors over the past two years, but 2011 performance will be marred by catastrophe losses.

The influx of capital into ILS funds continued last month, with two European funds winning major mandates.

With much of the international (re)insurance market's focus trained on pricing of US and Asia Pacific property cat programmes, the retro market's activities at the mid-year renewals went broadly under the radar.

Trading Risk explores how ILS fund managers are handling the legal and reputational risks of dicing up their funds to splice out catastrophe losses