S&P assigns Everglades Re cat bond notes ‘B’ rating
State-backed insurer of last resort Florida Citizens is looking to bring another catastrophe bond issuance to market via Everglades Re.According to insurance website Artemis, the transaction has an initial size of $250 million which would cover Florida hurricane risks from within the Citizens coastal account segment.Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s have assigned the single tranche of Everglades Re Series 2013-1 cat bond notes a preliminary rating of ‘B’.It is unclear whether Everglades Re would list the bond with the Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX) like last year’s programme. In May 2012, Florida Citizens listed the largest ever single-peril catastrophe bond deal — $750 million — on the BSX with Bermuda-based special purpose insurer, Everglades Re, as the vehicle.The new deal, which was approved by Citizen’s board, will provide Citizens with a source of collateralised reinsurance capacity for hurricanes on a per-occurrence basis using an indemnity trigger over a three-year risk period.The initial attachment point for Everglades Re 2013, states Artemis, is $5.139 billion of indemnity losses to Citizens and the initial exhaustion point is $5.389 billion.