Swiss Re Places $294 Million French Windstorm Bonds

Swiss Re announced that it has successfully structured and placed €200 million ($294 million) of securities covering windstorm events in France.

The deal forms part of a three-year reinsurance agreement between Swiss Re and Groupama S.A. Swiss Re Capital Markets structured and placed the securitization and acted as the sole bookrunner for the initial offering.

Swiss Re also noted that the “French windstorm issuance is part of a program of up to €800 million [$1.176 billion], which provides a flexible, fully collateralized, multi-peril and multi-year platform enabling Swiss Re to support Groupama’s risk management strategy and to satisfy future cover needs.

“The initial offering of notes by Green Valley Ltd. closed on 27 December 2007. This euro-denominated cat bond is the largest ever to be placed in 144a form for French windstorm peril. In case of a windstorm in France, the program would pay a claim triggered by a parametric index based on wind speeds at various locations and calculated by the risk modeling company Risk Management Solutions (RMS).”

Source: Swiss Re – www.swissre.com

Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Windstorm Swiss Re