Hiscox Re & ILS well-placed to service additional investors: CEO Reardon

Kathleen Reardon, Chief Executive Officer of Hiscox Re & ILS, the international reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) arm of the Hiscox Group, recently explained to Artemis that the firm has ambitions to continue growing its ILS operation.

Already in 2022, the Hiscox ILS unit of the company, which is Hiscox’s dedicated ILS investment management operation, reported significant fund-raising success, lifting its ILS assets under management to $1.9 billion.

But CEO of Hiscox Re & ILS Reardon believes the company is well-positioned to continue to expand this part of its business and provided some hints as to why in a recent interview with Artemis.

“Our investors benefit from our closely-aligned model between our ILS arm and our reinsurance business which means the Hiscox Re & ILS underwriting team evaluates every treaty utilising what we call the Hiscox view of risk; providing additional reassurance to investors that they are supporting a high-quality portfolio,” Reardon explained.

Going on to explain that the company believes it is just as important to provide good service to existing ILS investors, as it is to work to attract new ones.

Reardon said that, “We continue to work to service our existing capital and attract new capital to support us, particularly in the property catastrophe space.”

Here, Hiscox Re & ILS has been expanding of late, growing into the hardening property catastrophe reinsurance market, an area of focus within the Hiscox ILS business.

“Property catastrophe continues to represent one of our best areas for growth given the increased demand for limit,” Reardon said.

Adding that, “On our property catastrophe portfolio, we were ahead of the curve in addressing the recent loss trends and are now in a strong position to support clients with meaningful capacity and quoting capability.”

The Hiscox ILS fund management business augments and expands the capacity Hiscox Re & ILS has available to deploy into property catastrophe risks, which helps the company to be even more meaningful a player for its cedents.

“As demand for reinsurance increases, Hiscox Re & ILS is well-placed to service additional capital partners within our aligned model,” Reardon told Artemis.

Highlighting that, “Our ILS business has seen strong growth over the past year, with ILS net inflows of $561 million and assets under management (AUM) of $1.9 billion as at 1 July 2022.”

And closing to say, “Our focus is to continue to deliver superior portfolios to investors.”

Read all of our interviews with ILS market and reinsurance leaders here.