News by sections

News by region
Issue archives
Archive section
Emerging talent
Emerging talent profiles
Domicile guidebook
Guidebook online
Search site
Features
Interviews
Domicile profiles
Generic business image for news article Image: Shutterstock

20 December 2017
London
Reporter Ned Holmes

Share this article





WTW Securities completes €90m cat bond for Covea

Willis Towers Watson Securities has structured and placed €90 million of insurance-linked securities (ILS) for Covea Mutual Insurance Group (Covea), France’s largest domestic property and casualty insurance group.

The Hexagon Reinsurance DAC (Hexagon) catastrophe bond, which settled 15 December, provides Covea with two €45 million tranches of full collateralised protection against windstorm risk in France over a four-year period.

The structure includes an indemnity trigger on an annual aggregate basis with terms mirroring the traditional reinsurance placement, which will ensure effective integration within the overall property catastrophe reinsurance programme.

The transaction was executed in collaboration with Willis Towers Watson’s reinsurance business, Willis Re.

Bill Dubinsky, head of ILS at Willis Towers Watson Securities, said: “We are proud to have supported Covea in its inaugural catastrophe bond transaction. Investors were eager to support the transaction. Hexagon diversifies Covea’s sources of reinsurance capacity with competitive pricing.”

He continued: “This is a unique transaction as it is the first time a European catastrophe bond has supported capacity at the bottom of a traditional reinsurance programme, as well as the first time a European indemnity-trigger catastrophe bond was placed on an annual aggregate basis.”

Alkis Tsimaratos, managing director of Willis Re Europe, the Middle East and Africa, added: “We are delighted at the multiple results achieved in this transaction. In addition to opening up a new source of capital for Covea’s reinsurance strategy, Hexagon offers a stable multi-year commitment at attractive terms, in the middle of a challenging renewal market, marked by future price uncertainties.”

Subscribe advert
Get in touch
News
More sections
Black Knight Media