Ace launches $95m sidecar Altair Re
Ace Limited has become the latest company to get into the third-party reinsurance capital management arena with the launch of a $95 million special purpose vehicle (SPI) called Altair Re.
Ace, one of the world’s largest multiline property casualty insurance and reinsurance groups, announced the formation of the SPI which will be used as a sidecar to provide additional collateralised capacity to support its global reinsurance business.
The insurance giant said that the capital behind the vehicle will be used to “broadly support” the global property catastrophe reinsurance portfolio of its Ace Tempest Re business.
“Altair Re gives us additional capacity to meet the diversified property catastrophe needs of our insurance and reinsurance company clients,” said Jacques Bonneau, chairman of Ace Tempest Re Group.
The Bermuda-headquartered Tempest Re oversees Ace’s reinsurance operations across P&C lines but has its origins as a catastrophe specialist set up in 1993 in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew.
The launch of Altair Re launches Ace into the third-party capital management arena, looking to use the sidecar to attract capital market investors’ capital and leverage its underwriting resources to deploy it as reinsurance capacity.
“Capital markets investors will benefit from ACE Tempest Re’s proven track record of conservative underwriting and consistent profitability, while the additional capital will enable us to take advantage of opportunities we see in the global property catastrophe market,” Mr Bonneau added.
Willis Capital Markets & Advisory acted as structuring and placement agent on the transaction.
This year has seen a number of new sidecar launches as insurance and reinsurance groups look to capitalise on the interest in the potential returns from reinsurance and catastrophe risk being shown by third-party investors.
Recent launches include, PartnerRe with the $75 million Lorenz Re, Everest Re’s $250 million Mt. Logan Re, Validus with its $230 million AlphaCat 2013, Argo’s launch of Harambee Re and RenaissanceRe’s $185 million Upsilon Re II.
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