May 2011/4

The latest Residential Re cat bond sale currently being marketed for regular sponsor USAA is set to provide a key test of the market's capacity for US wind risk.

Insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund managers are "licking their wounds" after RMS released cat bond remodelling statistics under version 11 of its new hurricane model.

London-listed collateralised reinsurer Catco has raised a net $121mn from a new share issue and is seeking to issue another 400mn new shares, according to a stock exchange announcement last week.

Lancashire's new sidecar will not be rushing in to write lots of retrocession, says head of investor relations Jonny Creagh-Coen.

Lloyd's CEO Richard Ward told the London market last week that its lucky streak on US hurricanes is likely to come to an end.

The US National Weather Service's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) climate prediction centre has released its forecasts for the 2011 hurricane season and is warning that it is set to be another year of high activity.

Bermudian (re)insurer Endurance Specialty will take a $45 to $55mn loss from the April tornado activity that swept through the southern US states of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and Virginia.

Property Claims Service (PCS) has put an initial loss estimate of $5.05bn for the devastating final outbreak of tornadoes and thunderstorms that struck the US last month.

As the swollen waters of the Mississippi River spill into Mississippi and Louisiana, insurers are bracing themselves for further significant claims in May after a record April for tornado losses.

Recent Lloyd's start-up Apollo Syndicate 1969 intends to reduce its property direct and facultative (D&F) exposures in Japan for the remainder of 2011 and concentrate instead on catastrophe treaty excess of loss placements, our sister title Inside FAC revealed last week.

Last week a trio of small/mid-cap publicly quoted Lloyd's insurers revealed differing growth outlooks for 2011 in their interim management statements.

Bermudian reinsurer White Mountains will become the owner of the 31st syndicate to start up at Lloyd's since 2007 when it begins trading later this year, research from The Insurance Insider shows.