Aon’s Randolph Re issues EUR 100m France weather related cat bond for Groupama

Randolph Re, insurance and reinsurance broker Aon’s private catastrophe bond issuance and placement platform, has completed a EUR 100 million private cat bond transaction, Randolph Re (Groupama), for Paris headquartered insurer Groupama.

This is the fourth private cat bond from the issuer but the first not to cover wildfire risk in California for Mercury Insurance.

Instead, Randolph Re (Groupama) provides European insurer Groupama with EUR 100 million of aggregate reinsurance for weather related claims experience in France.

At EUR 100 million, roughly USD 109.3 million, it’s the largest ever issuance via Aon’s Randolph Re platform.

The cover began on June 15th, 2023, and the private deal was both structured and placed by the Aon Securities team on an indemnity basis on behalf of Groupama, protecting against adverse deviation of climatic losses in France.

Thierry Martel, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Groupama, commented, “For Groupama, the relationship with our reinsurers remains essential. With this Cat bond transaction, we are demonstrating on the one hand our ability to adapt to major changes in the reinsurance market and, on the other hand, we are further protecting Groupama from adverse weather claims.”

As mentioned above, this is the largest Randolph Re cat bond ever issued, and also the first non-wildfire transaction from Aon’s platform.

The first came in 2020, Randolph Re (Series 2020-1), providing USD 50.25 million of California wildfire protection. This was followed by a USD 50.7 million California wildfire Randolph Re (Series 2021-1) issuance the following year, and then the USD 25 million Randolph Re (Series 2022-1) transaction last year, which also covered wildfires in California.