A new quarterly report from Artemis, an ILS-focused publication, has indicated a huge $7.1 billion of catastrophe bond and related insurance-linked securities (ILS) issuance in the second-quarter of 2023, raising the H1 2023 issuance to a record of more than $10.3 billion.
According to the latest data from the just published Artemis Deal Directory, the Q2 2023 ILS issuance is the only time that issuance in a single quarter has surpassed the $7 billion mark, as 36 transactions comprised of 48 tranches of notes came to market from a mix of repeat and new sponsors.
Specifically, the report examines the cat bond and related ILS risk capital issued in the quarter, exploring the structure of deals and also pricing of cat bond notes during a record period for the sector.
The Reinsurance News, an online medium that primarily focuses on the global risk underwriting industry, reported that the large majority of quarterly issuances were traditional 144a property catastrophe bonds, with just a few privately placed, or cat bond lite deals issued.
The report also reflected that as a result, Q2 2023 also set a record for property cat bond issuance which totalled $6.9 billion, with transactions covering a range of perils and regions, adding that with the exception of Beazley’s latest cyber cat bond, all the private deals issued in the quarter also covered property cat risks.
While repeat sponsors dominated issuance, Conduit Re, Spinnaker Insurance Company, Korean Re, and the New Zealand Earthquake Commission all featured for the first time.
The Artemis report further highlighted that the upsizing of deals was also common during the quarter, as sponsors capitalized on strong appetite from the investor base in order to secure their reinsurance and retrocession needs.
In addition, it also dissected the H1 2023 issuance, which also broke the record for total issuance and property cat bond issuance for the opening six month period.
