Martello Re seeking $800m in new equity

Bermuda-based life re/insurer Martello Re is in talks to raise at least $800 million of new equity, Bloomberg News reported. 

The re/insurer, which launched in January, 2022, has commitments from new and existing investors, Bloomberg quoted people with knowledge of the deal. A transaction hasn’t been finalised, and the capital raise may be upsized, one of the people said. All of the sources requested anonymity discussing confidential talks.

Centerbridge Partners, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance and Barings were among a consortium which announced the launch of Martello Re with initial equity of $1.65 billion, Bloomberg said. 

A Centerbridge representative declined to comment. Representatives for Martello Re, MassMutual and Barings didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Martello Re, led by chief executive officer Dennis Ho, has deployed more than $2 billion in capital and manages more than $20 billion in assets. 

“We started at $14 billion of AUM, we’re at $19 billion, we started with five people, we’re at 54 people,” Ho said in a January conversation with Barings head of portfolio solutions and analytics Colin Gordon posted on the Barings website. “If you look at our business plan and our growth over the next three or four years, we’ll probably double our AUM,” he said.

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