A huge $7.1 billion of catastrophe bond and related insurance-linked securities (ILS) issuance featured in the second-quarter of 2023, taking first-half issuance to a record of more than $10.3 billion, according to the latest quarterly report from our ILS-focused sister publication, Artemis.
Data from the Artemis Deal Directory shows that Q2 2023 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.
The large majority of quarterly issuance were traditional 144a property catastrophe bonds, with just a few privately placed, or cat bond lite deals issued. 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.
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.
As highlighted in the report, the upsizing of deals was also common during the quarter, as sponsors capitalised on strong appetite from the investor base in order to secure their reinsurance and retrocession needs.
The report also dissects H1 2023 issuance, which also broke the record for total issuance and property cat bond issuance for the opening six month period.
The Artemis Q2 2023 Catastrophe Bond and related insurance-linked securities (ILS) Market Report is available to download now. It 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.
Download your free copy of Artemis’ Q2 2023 Cat Bond & ILS Market Report here.
For copies of all of the Artemis catastrophe bond market reports, visit the archive page and download them all.
