AXIS Capital tires of revolving ILS doors, warms to long-term players
AXIS Capital is chumming up to its third party capital providers willing to take longer-tail liability business exposures, while investor sentiment to short-duration property cat exposures, dogged by years of trapped capital, remains cool, top officials have suggested.
AXIS Capital sounds most upbeat on recent talks with “more long-term capital interested more in the investment play associated with longer term liabilities,” CFO Peter Vogt told analysts and investors gathered for his company's recent investor day.
As a result, AXIS’ multi-year vehicles Harrington Re, which it does in partnership with Blackstone, as well as Monarch Capital, are the current ILS darlings for AXIS management.
“If we are going to put capital behind a long-tail liability, we are looking for multiple year relationship,” Vogt said. “We've been able to do that with Harrington, long-tail, as well as Monarch.”
“Those are partnerships that we hold very dear to us because it is not just a one year one-and-done type of partnership.”
Property cat ILS investors, in turn, “have been hesitant” and the investors that do play property cat prefer to stay in the most remote layers of coverage, Vogt said. Related AXIS vehicles in Alturas Re, Northshore Re or the like, went unmentioned.
“Because a lot of the property ILS, they look at it as one year and then they want their capital back.”
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