AXIS Closes Market’s First 144A Cyber Catastrophe Bond
November 28 2023 - 5:00PM
Business Wire
AXIS Capital Holdings Limited (“AXIS Capital” or the “Company”)
(NYSE: AXS) today announced that it has closed the market’s first
144A cyber catastrophe bond, a $75 million transaction providing
several of the Company’s subsidiaries with fully collateralized
indemnity reinsurance protection for systemic cyber events on a per
occurrence basis. Long Walk Reinsurance Ltd. (“Long Walk”) issued
$75 million of Series 2024-1 Class A notes, maturing January 2026,
to investors to support the reinsurance agreement with the
Company.
“Long Walk is a strong example of how AXIS is demonstrating
leadership through innovation and by developing elevated specialty
solutions to address the challenges in a dynamic marketplace,” said
Peter Vogt, Chief Financial Officer at AXIS. “Together with our
partners Aon Securities, CyberCube and Sidley Austin, AXIS is proud
that the ILS investor community has shown tremendous confidence in
and acceptance of Long Walk, the first 144A cyber catastrophe bond,
and our cyber underwriting capabilities. We expect Long Walk to
provide meaningful support for the growth of our cyber insurance
portfolio in the future. More broadly, we expect this transaction
will serve as a template that the catastrophe bond market will use
to support the availability of cyber insurance capacity in the
years to come.”
The Long Walk catastrophe bond transaction was structured and
distributed to investors by Aon Securities. The expertized risk
analysis was provided by CyberCube’s Portfolio Manager platform.
Sidley Austin served as the deal counsel on the transaction.
Richard Pennay, CEO of Insurance-Linked Securities at Aon
Securities, said: “This is a notable catastrophe bond transaction,
not just for the insurance-linked securities market, but also for
the global cyber insurance market. It received broad investor
support, and illustrated the catastrophe bond investors’ ability to
work with AXIS to pioneer a product that provides meaningful
catastrophe-based cyber protection. The transaction also ensures
investors receive additional diversification across the catastrophe
bond product spectrum, helping them to navigate potential
volatility and build a resilient portfolio. Significantly, this
transaction marks an important milestone, whereby the catastrophe
bond market is leading in the development of a catastrophe-based
cyber reinsurance product. There is strong insurer demand for the
further development of this non-proportional product, and we
commend AXIS Capital’s leadership in developing the catastrophe
bond capacity.”
Pascal Millaire, CyberCube CEO, said: “We are proud to have
supported AXIS in the world's first cyber 144A cat bond. AXIS, Aon
Securities, Sidley Austin and CyberCube worked incredibly hard as a
team on the development of a new chapter for the ILS market. We are
very pleased to be part of this groundbreaking transaction. This
deal highlights the confidence shown by the market in Portfolio
Manager and the team at CyberCube. We believe this lays a
foundation for the growth of cyber as an alternative asset class
for ILS investors.”
Long Walk Reinsurance is a Bermuda exempted company and
registered as a special purpose insurer. This is the first issuance
of notes for Long Walk Reinsurance covering the AXIS insurance and
reinsurance companies, including its Lloyd’s syndicate.
About AXIS Capital AXIS Capital, through its operating
subsidiaries, is a global specialty underwriter and provider of
insurance and reinsurance solutions. The Company has shareholders'
equity of $5.0 billion at September 30, 2023, and locations in
Bermuda, the United States, Europe, Singapore and Canada. Its
operating subsidiaries have been assigned a financial strength
rating of "A+" ("Strong") by Standard & Poor's and "A"
("Excellent") by A.M. Best. For more information about AXIS
Capital, visit our website at www.axiscapital.com.
About Aon Aon plc (NYSE: AON) exists to shape decisions
for the better — to protect and enrich the lives of people around
the world. Our colleagues provide our clients in over 120 countries
and sovereignties with advice and solutions that give them the
clarity and confidence to make better decisions to protect and grow
their business.
Follow Aon on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Stay
up-to-date by visiting the Aon Newsroom and sign up for News Alerts
here.
About Aon Securities Aon Securities is the largest
insurance-linked securities focused investment bank by annual
catastrophe bond issuance. Specializing in catastrophe bonds, Aon
Securities has to date placed in excess of USD 7 billion of
catastrophe bonds in 2023. The firm actively works with insurers
and reinsurers, corporations and governments, globally to
complement their insurance and reinsurance purchases with
insurance-linked securities. Aon Securities is wholly owned by
Aon.
About CyberCube CyberCube delivers the world’s leading
cyber risk analytics for the insurance industry. With best-in-class
data access and advanced multi-disciplinary analytics, the
company’s cloud-based platform helps insurance organizations
quantify cyber risk to facilitate placing insurance, underwriting
cyber risk and managing cyber risk aggregation. CyberCube’s
enterprise intelligence layer provides insights on millions of
companies globally and includes modeling on thousands of points of
technology failure.
The CyberCube platform was established in 2015 within Symantec
and now operates as a standalone company exclusively focused on the
insurance industry, with access to an unparalleled ecosystem of
data partners. It is backed by Morgan Stanley Tactical Value,
Forgepoint Capital, HSCM Bermuda, MTech Capital, individuals from
Stone Point Capital and Scott G. Stephenson. For more information,
please visit www.cybcube.com or email info@cybcube.com
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231128059675/en/
Investor Contact Dinh Nguyen AXIS Capital Holdings
Limited investorrelations@axiscapital.com (929) 389 3282
Media Contact Nichola Liboro AXIS Capital Holdings
Limited nichola.liboro@axiscapital.com (917) 705-4579
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