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.