QBE Insurance Group, the Australia headquartered global insurance and reinsurance company, is back in the catastrophe bond market, seeking $300 million or more of international peak peril reinsurance from a Bridge Street Re Ltd. (Series 2025-2) issuance, Artemis has learned.
This marked QBE’s first catastrophe bond since late 2013, when it secured $250 million of US and Australian multi-peril protection from the VenTerra Re Ltd. (Series 2013-1) deal.
With this new cat bond, QBE is once again using its special purpose insurer (SPI), Bridge Street Re Ltd, which is looking to issue a single tranche of Series 2025-2 Class A notes, that will be sold to investors to collateralize the underlying reinsurance arrangement.
The cat bond notes will provide QBE and certain underwriting subsidiaries of the company, indemnity based reinsurance against losses caused by named storms and earthquakes in the U.S., as well as earthquakes in Australia and New Zealand.
Sources have also indicated that the expected loss of the notes is fairly evenly driven, by U.S. named storms (27% contribution to expected loss), U.S. earthquakes (36%), Australian earthquakes (21%), and New Zealand earthquakes (14%).
The coverage will be on a per-occurrence and indemnity trigger basis, running across a three-year term, from January 1st 2026, sources have said.
The notes will attach at $800 million of losses and cover losses up to an exhaustion point of $1.2 billion, leaving a little room for this Bridge Street Re 2026-1 cat bond to upsize to fill that $400 million layer, should QBE elect to.
The currently $300 million of Class A notes Bridge Street Re Ltd. is set to issue will have an initial attachment probability of 4.5%, an initial expected loss of 3.33% and are being offered to cat bond investors with price guidance in a range from 7.5% to 8%, we are told.
It’s particularly encouraging to see QBE return to the catastrophe bond market, shortly after the company issued its last cat bond and looking to expand the territories covered with its latest sponsorship.
This clearly demonstrates another large re/insurer recognising the value of diversifying its sources of reinsurance with the support of capital markets.
You can read all about this new Bridge Street Re Ltd. (Series 2025-2) catastrophe bond transaction and every other cat bond ever issued in our Artemis Deal Directory.
