Help

BI’s Article search uses Boolean search capabilities. If you are not familiar with these principles, here are some quick tips.

To search specifically for more than one word, put the search term in quotation marks. For example, “workers compensation”. This will limit your search to that combination of words.

To search for a combination of terms, use quotations and the & symbol. For example, “hurricane” & “loss”.

Login Register Subscribe

SCOR launches retrocession cat bond

Reprints

PARIS— French reinsurer SCOR has sponsored a € 120 million catastrophe bond issue in a multiyear property catastrophe retrocession agreement with Atlas Reinsurance III P.L.C. of Ireland.

In the transaction, Atlas Re III, a special purpose reinsurance company whose ordinary shares are held in a charitable trust, provides &euros; 120 million in additional reinsurance for SCOR and its affiliates.

SCOR obtains fully collateralized second and subsequent-event retrocession protection against high-severity losses incurred from windstorms in Europe and earthquakes in Japan, for the risk period January 1, 2007, to December 31, 2009, according to the Paris-based group.

The agreement is funded entirely by Atlas Re III's proceeds from the cat bond issue, already fully subscribed in a private placement to institutional investors, said Jim Root, SCOR's director of investor relations. Goldman Sachs was lead bank for the placement, he said.

"This deal is a very cost-effective, safe way for us to get retrocession coverage in the current context of the market, which is very tight and very expensive. It costs us less than going to a standard retrocessionaire," he said Root. The bond improves the group's visibility on its retrocession program for three years, he said.Standard & Poor's Corp. said Thursday that it had assigned its BB+ senior secured debt rating to the principal-at-risk variable-rate notes issued in the deal.