Limestone Re Bermuda sidecar in $150m collateralised re deal with Liberty Mutual

Liberty Mutual has completed a $150 million reinsurance sidecar transaction through its Bermuda-domiciled segregated account company Limestone Re.

Limestone Re will provide collateralised third-party reinsurance capacity for Liberty Mutual's US property catastrophe programme, as well as its US homeowners and global property reinsurance business.

The deal is comprised of $58 million of Bermuda Stock Exchange listed 2019-1 Notes issued by Limestone Re, with the rest of the capacity provided through private placements.

Limestone Re is used in conjunction the Limestone Capital Markets platform, which was set up by Liberty Mutual in 2016 to provide capital for both traditional property catastrophe reinsurance risks as well as insurance risks including homeowners, marine and other global specialty insurance lines.

"The Limestone Re platform continues to be an integral component of Liberty Mutual's strategy for accessing third-party capital," said James Slaughter, senior vice president and chief underwriting officer of Liberty Mutual's Global Risk Solutions strategic business unit.  "Liberty Mutual's global reach makes us uniquely positioned to provide insurance-linked securities (ILS) investors diversified pools of risk while bringing them as close as possible to the underlying insurance risks."

Arno Gartzke, vice president and director of ILS, Liberty Mutual, said that the transaction successfully replaced the expiring Limestone Re 2016-1 placement.

"Liberty Mutual remains committed to the ILS market and the continued support from our key partners, despite challenging market conditions, reaffirms the quality of risks which investors can access via Limestone Re," added Gartzke.