Gateway Re lists $60m cat bond on BSX

Gateway Re has listed a $60 million catastrophe bond on the Bermuda Stock Exchange which will provide reinsurance cover against named storms in eight US states.   

SageSure, a managing general underwriters focused on catastrophe-exposed markets, Anchor Re, a captive reinsurance vehicle, and SureChoice Underwriters Reciprocal Exchange, a policyholder-owned reciprocal exchange, announced the close of the Gateway Re 2024-4 county-weighted wind cover catastrophe bond at $60 million, a 20% upsize from the original $50 million target.

The eighth transaction in the Gateway Re series, the latest issuance brings SageSure-supported risk capital for underwriting partners to $1.2 billion in slightly over two years. SageSure said.

“The structure of this catastrophe bond provides essential protection if more than one hurricane impacts our portfolio this hurricane season. We’re grateful to the ILS investor community for its continued support, which enables Anchor Re to efficiently deploy capital and capacity for SageSure’s underwriting partners’ reinsurance programmes,” said Travis Lewis, director of Houston-based Anchor Re.

Like the Gateway Re 2023-3 catastrophe bond secured a year ago, this issuance also uses a Property Claim Services (PCS) county-weighted catastrophe loss reporting trigger, a feature that has only been used by this franchise to cover multiple states. Unlike the previous catastrophe bond that provided three-year county-weighted wind cover, the latest transaction is designed to provide retrocessional reinsurance protection solely across the current hurricane season through the end of 2024.

Anchor Re, SURE, and Elevate Reciprocal Exchange (Elevate) are named as cedents, and the coverage will protect against a series of qualifying named storm events in Alabama, North and South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Virginia, and New York.

“SageSure continues to find the ILS market to be a sophisticated and efficient source of risk capital to support our underwriting partners. We are grateful for the confidence in our programs we’ve seen over the last two years,” said Terrence McLean, President and CEO of SageSure.

The issuance marks SURE’s third successful transaction completed through the global insurance-linked securities (ILS) market this year, following the recently closed $130 million Gateway Re Series 2024-2 catastrophe bond.

Swiss Re Capital Markets again served as the sole structuring agent and bookrunner for the issuance.

“Swiss Re Capital Markets is proud to have secured this second and subsequent event cover for SageSure. This eighth successful issuance under the Gateway program is a remarkable feat considering that SageSure has now secured $1.2 billion of cumulative notional limit in catastrophe bonds in just over 2 years. The 2024 transaction will provide valuable sideways coverage through county-weighted industry loss indices for Anchor Re, as well as SURE and Elevate,” said Jean-Louis Monnier, CEO of Swiss Re Capital Markets.

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