GC Securities has completed the placement of the Series 2015-1 Notes, with notional principal of $100 million, through newly formed catastrophe bond shelf programme Bosphorus, to benefit the Turkish Catastrophe Insurance Pool (TCIP).
The 2015-1 Notes represent the second time that TCIP has accessed the cat bond market. The pool did so in 2013 through the issuance of Bosphorus 1 Re and has now sourced $500 million of cat bond capacity from capital market investors.
The Series 2015-1 Notes provide three years of per occurrence protection for earthquakes affecting the Istanbul region.
They are triggered based on certain ground motion measurements captured at certain ground motion seismometers that are part of the Istanbul early warning and rapid response system.
Süha Çele, executive board member of Eureko Sigorta, commented: “We are proud to be the sponsor of Bosphorus. Our previous bond, Bosphorus 1 Re, was a real success story as it is the first cat bond covering Turkish perils.”
“We are pleased to see that the second bond is also well accepted by the capital markets, which is showing us also that the bond programme of TCIP is now well established.”
“In view of the constantly growing portfolio of TCIP, our cooperation with the capital markets will continue in the near future, which would allow TCIP to diversify its reinsurance buying and utilise multi-year capacity at a stable price.”
Cory Anger, global head of insurance-linked securities structuring at GC Securities, commented: “We are delighted that TCIP has elected to utilise catastrophe bond-based protection for a second time to complement its traditional reinsurance programme and build upon the success of its initial use of catastrophe bonds.”
