June 2011/1

Swiss investment manager Twelve Capital has secured a $150mn ILS mandate from Denmark's largest occupational pension fund.

London-based ILS manager Leadenhall Capital Partners has raised another $50mn from investors, compounding an earlier $50mn June inflow and taking total assets under management to $210mn.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) has downgraded American Family Mutual 's Mariah Re 2010-1 cat bond as the loss tally from May's Joplin tornado reached 88 percent of the $300mn attachment point on the notes.

Elementum Advisors founding principal Tony Rettino was named Outstanding Contributor of the Year at the Trading Risk awards dinner in London last night (23 June).

A group of 200 convergence market luminaries gathered in London last night (23 June) to celebrate and reward the skill, innovation and vision so evident in this sector at the Trading Risk Awards 2011.

First-time cat bond issuer Argo Group has described its $100mn Loma Re transaction as the most efficient way to expand its reinsurance and retro programmes ahead of this year's US wind season.

Clariden Leu shuts doors to cash influx; Alternative beta for Australian fund; Greenlight reports lossTraymar courts private equity for $100mn life settlement fund

A handful of small to mid-sized European ILS fund managers have succeeded in riding the wave of interest in insurance-linked investments by raising over $250mn in recent weeks, Trading Risk can reveal.

In a similar reaction to that of the traditional markets at the busy June and July renewal season, the impact of the model changes in the convergence sector appears to have been muted.

The Massachusetts state wind pool and Hannover Re, among other (re)insurers, rejected the ILS market in favour of competitive traditional offers at the mid-year renewals.

Collateralised reinsurers wrote around one third of the $550mn reinsurance programme bought this June by Florida's state-backed insurer Citizens, Trading Risk understands.

Cat underwriters were broadly satisfied at the Florida-dominated 1 June reinsurance renewals, with average risk-adjusted rate rises calculated to be in the 10-15 percent range, according to analysis from sister publication The Insurance Insider.