December 2009/1

Following the recent ILS trend, the December issue of Trading Risk is a bumper one -  increasing in size during production to 20 pages.

Reinsurer plans launch of £67mn Lloyd's syndicate and retro sidecar

Bank of America tests market for new Barbadian collateralised retro venture

Ex-Stark Investments ILS portfolio managers Tony Rettino and John DeCaro have launched Elementum Advisors, completing their management buy-out as first reported by Trading Risk in July.

A loss looks increasingly likely on the Class G notes of Glacier Re's 2008 Nelson Re, as claims from last year's Hurricane Ike threaten to trigger the bond.

French reinsurer SCOR Global P&C has launched a EUR75mn Euro wind and Japanese earthquake cat bond, Atlas VI, as first predicted by Trading Risk in October.

Zurich American Insurance Company is believed to be closely monitoring the progress of Swiss Re's Redwood XI as a test case for its mooted Lakeside Re cat bond renewal, Trading Risk understands.

Did earthquake model changes make 2009 Redwood series viable?

Secondary market traders registered an uptick in cat bond trading in November, as the US wind season drew to a close and US wind-exposed bonds came off-risk.

The secondary market price of 2009 cat bonds has shot up to an average 108-112 cents to the dollar, reflecting strong demand for the high yields in early post-Lehman issuance.

Secondary market pricing on Glacier Re's troubled Nelson Re Class G notes slumped to around 7-10 cents to the dollar after Moody's Investor Service downgraded the $67.5mn US wind-exposed G tranche in late November on news of mounting losses from Hurricane Ike.

The four cat bonds to close in recent weeks were all upsized, but investors' participation was still heavily marked down...