Securis launches team to search for the next ILS opportunities

Securis Investment Partners, the London-headquartered insurance and reinsurance linked asset manager, has launched a new Insurance Solutions Group as it seeks to expand the range of insurance-linked securities (ILS) investment options available to it.

The Securis Insurance Solutions Group will explore how life ILS structuring technologies can be put to work in the non-life space, which the ILS manager believes can drive new origination opportunities and create solutions that are currently not prevalent in the non-life ILS space.

The life ILS market, of which Securis is a specialist and operates dedicated investment strategies, is sophisticated in its use of structures and financial technology to bring life insurance and reinsurance risks into insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund compatible formats.

In some cases, life ILS arrangements are more akin to financing than pure risk transfer, helping to finance the risks on balance-sheets, or value and monetise them.

Similar techniques could be used to create non-life insurance linked assets for ILS fund portfolios, which appears to be the goal at Securis.

Already a leading player in both life and non-life ILS markets, Securis said that it is increasingly originating ILS opportunities that don’t naturally or exclusively fit in either of these core areas of its strategy.

As a result, Securis says it sees “A significant near-term opportunity to deploy what have traditionally been considered “life ILS” technologies to new areas within the non-life space.”

To capture this opportunity and capitalise on it, Securis has formed this Insurance Solutions Group team to focus on opportunities outside and across the traditional channels where ILS managers typically focus their efforts.

Securis has hired former J.P. Morgan employee and structured life insurance solutions expert Mattias Eng to head up its new business unit.

Eng has twenty-years of experience exclusively within insurance, either originating and executing transactions at a number of leading investment banks, or working in senior risk and capital management roles within life insurance companies.

Vegard Nilsen, CEO of Securis, commented on the news, “Securis is very excited about Mattias joining and leading the newly formed Insurance Solutions Group. He possesses a rare combination of insurance and capital markets experience and I have no doubt that he will be successful. He will play an important role in Securis’ continued efforts to grow and expand the investable ILS universe, ensuring that it remains an attractive and unique asset class for investors.”

“Securis has always differentiated itself by offering its investors a multi-strategy approach, this portfolio management agility gives our fund products an advantage across the market cycle. Very few ILS managers have the strength of resources and infrastructure to deliver investors this breadth of offering and Mattias will further enhance our capabilities in this regard,” Herbie Lloyd, CIO Non-Life at Securis added.

“The ILS market has matured considerably over the past decade, but there remains tremendous scope for innovation to continue to drive growth,” Mattias Eng, Head of Insurance Solutions at Securis said.

It’s an intriguing proposition, the application of advanced financial technologies to create new insurance and reinsurance linked investment opportunities within the non-life space.

It’s also intriguing from the product point of view, as there are many problems that financing can solve for non-life insurance and reinsurance risks, for example in intangible areas such as intellectual property.

As a result, it will be interesting to see how this new team and initiative develops at Securis.