March 2011/1

Alterra Capital Holdings and private equity firm Stone Point Capital have committed up to $200mn to the first post-Japan property catastrophe sidecar.

EUR150mn of Atlas Capital notes issued by French reinsurer Scor are highly unlikely to trigger following the Tohoku earthquake which struck Japan on 11 March, Trading Risk understands.

Goldman Sachs is seeking to raise at least $100mn in a repeat of its innovative 2010 health insurance securitisation, Vitality Re, Trading Risk understands.

ILS manager Securis Investment Partners has put plans for a £200mn exchange-listed closed-end fund on hold, citing the Japanese earthquake and investor caution for the delay.

Industry loss warranty (ILW) prices have risen 20 to 30 percent on average after a string of catastrophe losses this year, broker Aon Benfield says in its latest reinsurance market outlook report.

Modelling firm Risk Management Solutions (RMS) is expected to announce on 25 April whether the 11 March Japan earthquake constitutes a first loss for Platinum Re's Topiary Capital cat bond.

Risk Management Solutions (RMS) has issued a preliminary value for users of its Paradex index, setting the initial index number for the 11 March Tohoku earthquake at 3.1tn yen.

Platinum Underwriters president and CEO Michael Price has said that he expects to benefit from the $200mn cat bond cover under Topiary Capital for any catastrophe events occurring before August this year.

Swiss Re's $100mn Vita Capital IV Series III extreme mortality notes have been placed on CreditWatch negative by Standard & Poor's (S&P) as the number feared dead from Japan's 11 March earthquake and tsunami rises.

Ratings agency AM Best has followed Standard & Poor's (S&P) in placing Platinum Re's $200mn Topiary Capital cat bond under ratings review following the 11 March earthquake and tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan.

Two blocks of Scor's 2009 Atlas VI cat bond changed hands in the aftermath of the Japan earthquake as investors traded on their views of expected loss on the notes, Trading Risk has learned.

Some £20bn of pension fund risk may pass to banks and insurers by the end of 2012, pensions advisory firm Hymans Robertson says.

Owners of Japan earthquake-exposed cat bonds with parametric triggers will have to wait at least 30 days until they learn whether their investments have been impaired by the magnitude 9 quake which struck the northeast of the country on 11 March.

Price indications on cat bonds continued to fall last week, underlining fears in the ILS sector that a portion of the $1.4bn outstanding capacity exposed to Japanese earthquake risk could be triggered by the 11 March earthquake.

Between $50mn and $100mn of Japanese earthquake industry loss warranties (ILW) traded shortly after the 11 March catastrophe that struck northeastern Japan, Trading Risk can reveal.

Munich Re placed $100mn of US and European wind cover in the cat bond market this week, just days after the 11 March Japanese earthquake and tsunami that threw the (re)insurance markets into turmoil.

A $50mn collateralised retrocession cover helped limit Bermudian (re)insurer Aspen's losses on the February New Zealand earthquake, the firm disclosed today (16 March).

Secondary market pricing on Japanese-exposed cat bonds has dived following Friday's (11 March) devastating earthquake and tsunami, although confusion still reigns over which bonds may face actual losses.

Risk and insurance management specialist Kane Group has purchased leading cat bond administrator HSBC Insurance Management (HIM) in a private equity-backed deal worth $27.5mn.

Hannover Re's $329mn K6 sidecar will cover one-third of the firm's catastrophe-related gross losses from the New Zealand earthquakes, which means it could bear a hit of up to EUR125.5mn.

Where is capital coming from in the convergence market? Trading Risk has a go at finding the source of funds...

Cat bonds did not perform as strongly last year as in the heady days of 2009, but Swiss Re said the results showed the market had fully recovered from the financial crisis.

International (re)insurers are now facing a loss bill of $12bn as the scale of the devastation in Christchurch, New Zealand became apparent last month.

Is the recent spate of costly earthquakes a deadly trend or just coincidence?