Willis Re Securities Completes €120 Million ILS CAT Bond for Covéa

Willis Re Securities has structured and placed €120 million of insurance-linked securities (ILS) to provide reinsurance capacity for Covéa Mutual Insurance Group (Covéa), France's largest domestic property and casualty insurance group.

Hexagon II Reinsurance DAC (Hexagon II Re) provides Covéa with a single €120 million tranche of fully collateralized protection against windstorm and other weather-related events in France for a 4-year period. The structure features an indemnity trigger on a per occurrence basis with terms mirroring the traditional reinsurance placement to ensure effective integration within the overall property catastrophe reinsurance program.

Quentin Perrot, head of sales international at Willis Re Securities, said, "Hexagon II Re is the first non-US cat bond transaction issued in the past nine months. The favourable closing conditions demonstrate investors' strong appetite for Covéa natural catastrophic risk. With this new issuance, Willis Re Securities maintains its unrivalled leadership position in the structuring and placement of European ILS transactions."

Alkis Tsimaratos, managing director of Willis Re Europe, the Middle East, and Africa West-South, said, "The transaction demonstrates the ability of both the traditional reinsurance market and the catastrophe bond market to work together, offering increased reinsurance flexibility to cedants. It also confirms Covéa's position as an established European ILS issuer and highlights the attractiveness of diversifying European perils to this market."