Markel CATCo Investment Management Ltd., the collateralized reinsurance and retrocessional investment fund manager, has announced that two of its portfolio managers will be leaving the company to establish a new investment manager and fund, called Chard Re Investment Management (Chard Re).
Rick Montgomerie and Charlie Vaughan were the portfolio managers for Markel CATCo’s Aquilo Fund.
They will be departing alongside the fund’s underwriter, Elizabeth Simmons, with the intention of launching Chard Re on January 1, 2020.
Markel Corporation is planning to be a seed investor in Chard Re and take an ownership position of between 12.5% and 17%.
It also intends for the assets and liabilities of the Aquilo Fund – including any side pockets – to be transferred to Chard Re, who will then manage the Fund’s run-off.
Aquilo was launched by Markel CATCo in 2014 as a fully fronted reinsurance offering, expanding CATCo’s main retrocessional insurance-linked securities (ILS) offering.
Back in July, Markel CATCo announced that it would stop accepting new investments in in Markel CATCo Reinsurance Fund Ltd., would not write any new business going forward through Markel CATCo Re Ltd, and would place its existing portfolio in run-off.
At the same time, the company said that it intended to establish a new retrocessional insurance-linked securities (ILS) platform in Bermuda, comprised of a reinsurance company, fund entity and investment manager.
