Lloyd’s unveils first 144A cat bond on London Bridge

Lloyd’s has announced the issuance of the first 144A catastrophe bond through its risk transformation platform, London Bridge 2 PCC Limited.

The transaction, valued at US$100 million, is sponsored by Beazley on behalf of its Lloyd’s syndicates (623, 2623, and 3623), its North American insurance company (Beazley Excess and Surplus Inc.), and its European carrier (Beazley Insurance DAC).

With this transaction, the total securities issued to institutional investors by the London Bridge vehicles have reached approximately US$750 million, distributed across 13 cells. Aon Securities LLC served as the sole structuring and book-building agent for the bond issuance, and Mayer Brown was appointed as deal counsel for the transaction.

“This is another important milestone for this strategically important risk transformation vehicle for the Lloyd’s market and reaffirms the flexibility this vehicle has, provided by its regulatory permissions. We are delighted that Beazley has been the pioneer for this new issuance, which confirms our belief that the UK market, and Lloyd’s in particular, is a great place for institutional investors to gain access to global re/insurance risk,” Lloyd’s CFO Burkhard Keese said.

“Beazley is delighted to be sponsoring the first 144A property catastrophe bond utilizing the London Bridge platform. We were impressed with the smooth and efficient way that an ILS transaction can be issued out of the UK market and we are grateful for the support received from Lloyd’s and Artex throughout the process,” Beazley CEO Adrian Cox said.

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