Lancashire vehicle Kinesis kick-starts underwriting

Kinesis Capital Management, the capital management division of Lancashire Holdings, has now started underwriting fully collateralised reinsurance business on behalf of Kinesis Reinsurance I, a Bermuda domiciled special purpose insurer, the company has revealed.

Its first tranche of multi-class reinsurance agreements comprised combined aggregate limits in excess of $250m, which incepted on or around 1 January.

The entity has raised cash from a number of external investors with Lancashire contributing 10 percent of the capital raised. All the reinsurance contracts are fully collateralised.

Goldman Sachs worked with Lancashire to structure the Kinesis vehicles, which will allow investors access to the market on a regular and opportunistic basis.

Lancashire chief executive Richard Brindle said: “The successful launch of Kinesis, as a multi-class, fully collateralised reinsurance provider, is an exciting development in Lancashire's third party capital management strategy. We have built an excellent team at KCM, led by Darren Redhead, which has strong underwriting skills and capabilities and this bodes well for future growth.

“Together, Lancashire, Kinesis and Cathedral constitute our three platforms to access different kinds of capital, all with high calibre, established underwriters. This approach allows us to provide brokers and clients with insurance and reinsurance solutions for all types of risk transfer requirements.”

KCM's chief executive Darren Redhead said: “We are delighted that the Kinesis vehicles are now fully established and funded and we look forward to continuing to develop KCM's business and reputation in the Insurance-Linked Securities arena. We are very pleased with the start we have made, with the quality of the investors and clients, and are looking to develop further capacity and specialty class transactions during the year ahead.”