Towers Watson Capital Markets closes $60 million cat bond

Towers Watson Capital Markets said Thursday it recently arranged a private placement catastrophe bond for the New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance Group (NJM), that company’s first insurance-linked securities transaction.

The bond, Sullivan Re 2013-1, closed at $60 million and has a three-year maturity, providing per-occurrence indemnity-based, collateralized catastrophe reinsurance coverage for NJM’s New Jersey and Pennsylvania territories.

“As a three-year deal, the cat bond provides the cedant with an added dimension to its overall program. By working closely with our brokerage colleagues we are able to bring the most comprehensive solutions in the markets to our cedants,” said Rick Miller, TWCM’s co-head of ILS.

“The ILS market continues to transform traditional reinsurance while becoming more accessible to smaller players,” added Michael Popkin, TWCM’s co-head of ILS. “This is creating a market trend we expect to continue, where new cedants are eager to develop instruments that investors want to participate in. We’re very pleased our team can fill this important role for new cedants by bringing their perils to the ILS market.”