More than half a billion dollars of insurance-linked securities and cat bonds have been admitted for listing on the Bermuda Stock Exchange this week.

Leo Re Ltd has issued $200 million of Class A participating notes, with a due date of March 2021. The nature of Leo Re and its securities is not known, however the listing sponsor is Clarien BSX Services Ltd.

On Tuesday, Liberty Mutual Insurance announced the creation of its new Limestone Capital Markets platform. The following day the newly formed Bermudian-domiciled segregated account company Limestone Re Ltd listed $72 million of Class A participating voting notes, and a further $13 million of Class A participating non-voting notes, on the local exchange. Both sets of notes are due in August 2021.

Also on Wednesday, Hannover Re’s Kaith Re Ltd, acting in respect of its segregated account LI Re, had a $9.99 million cat bond admitted to the exchange. The Series 2016-2 bond is due on April 2018.

Meanwhile, the week started with a 255 million euros ($265 million) ILS listing by Horse Capital I DAC for Italian insurer Assicurazioni Generali. The principal at-risk variable rate notes are due in June 2020. There are three equal tranches of notes, representing lower to higher risk levels.

Willis Capital Markets & Advisory, the investment banking business of Willis Towers Watson, acted as sole structuring agent and joint bookrunner for securities, which is designed to allow Generali to better manage the volatility of its loss ratio and solvency ratio on one of its core lines of business.

Commenting on the innovative ILS, Bill Dubinsky, head of ILS at Willis Capital Markets and Advisory, said: “From the onset, we believed that capital markets investors were well placed to support this type of risk. By structuring the transaction to meet the requirements of investors for transparency as well as the robustness of payment mechanics, we achieved an efficient and effective hedge for Generali supported by a broad panel of investors.

“Through this transaction, Generali opens the door to substantial opportunities with innovative ILS risks for both investors and potential sponsors going forward.”

Tony Melia, CEO of Willis Re International, said the transaction “demonstrates Generali’s ability to optimise its usage of reinsurance and other risk mitigation techniques to support the achievement of key financial objectives”.

He added: “With the implementation of Solvency II we are seeing increasing interest from leading insurance groups to work with Willis Towers Watson to structure innovative covers that meet their specific needs.”

Meanwhile, Rafal Walkiewicz, CEO of Willis Capital Markets and Advisory, said: “In recent years we have faced unprecedented growth in natural catastrophe cat bonds issuance but innovation outside of nat-cat risk has been slow.

“Willis Capital Markets and Advisory prides itself on structuring innovative solutions to offer capital market investors the opportunity to buy directly into a full spectrum of insurance risk.

“Working side by side with our Willis Re colleagues we deliver new products that help our clients benefit from capital markets disruption of the traditional reinsurance market.”