Alecta is investing $200m into the Atlas Gotland Worldwide Catastrophe Sidecar, partnering with French property, casualty and life reinsurance firm SCOR, adding to its insurance-linked securities (ILS) assets.
The insurer said Alecta – Sweden’s biggest pension fund – would be exposed to its diversified portfolio of property catastrophe reinsurance through a multi-year agreement.
Tony Persson, head of fixed income and strategy at Alecta, said: “We are convinced that insurance-linked securities can generate high-quality and uncorrelated returns benefiting our overall portfolio and are pleased to partner with SCOR given their expertise in this domain.”
SCOR said the sidecar was a segregated account of the firm’s newly-created special purpose reinsurer, Atlas Re in Bermuda, adding that the partnership formed part of its strategy to give access to its underwriting franchise to institutional investors through third-party capital transactions.
Jean-Paul Conoscente, chief executive officer of SCOR Global P&C, said: “This is another important milestone in the development of SCOR’s third-party capital strategy, with an important partnership with a leading pension fund.”
Yesterday, Alecta announced it was investing $250m into the 1863 fund platform of Swiss Re Insurance-Linked Investment Management (SRILIM), giving it exposure to natural catastrophe risk.
AP3 invests €300m in Verdane impact-focused fund
Swedish state pension buffer fund AP3 is investing – along with others – via a €300m financing round in an impact-focused fund managed by equity manager Verdane, which the manager said would finance European technology-enabled companies that contributed to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Verdane said the fund, Idun I, had closed at its hard cap of €300m, surpassing its target of €225m, and had made three investments so far – one in Auntie, a digital provider of workplace wellbeing services; one in Spond, a digital enabler of grass-root sports and physical health; and a third in a business that contributed to a low-carbon society, to be announced in the next few weeks, according to the firm.
It said investors in the fund included AP3, Norwegian state climate investment fund Nysnø Climate Investments, Adams Street Partners, a private markets investment management firm, and clients advised by Mercer.
Verdane said its fund had three main investment focuses – energy transition; sustainable consumption; and resilient communities. Any investment the fund made would have to address at least one of the SDGs, it said.
The firm also said its portfolio companies would also be required to report regularly against its own sustainability key performance indicators (KPIs), adding that both the fund’s carried interest and credit facility, which was run by Nordea, were linked to goal attainment.
No comments yet