Markel to wind down Lodgepine amid ‘headwinds’ in retro ILS market

Markel Corporation has said that it is winding down its retrocessional insurance linked securities (ILS) fund manager based in Bermuda, Lodgepine Capital Management, due to retro market headwinds and challenging fundraising environment.

Markel launched Lodgepine in 2019 with Hamilton's Brenton Slade (pictured) as president, and product offerings focused on property catastrophe retrocessional investments. In 2021, Lodgepine wrote a portfolio of property retrocessional business that consisted of approximately $230 million of initial limits.

The Lodgepine Fund launched July 1, 2021 with initial investor capital of $98.9 million, including an initial investment by Markel of $18.9 million.

The company said in a statement that “despite best efforts and in light of headwinds in the retrocessional ILS market, including a challenging fundraising environment, Lodgepine will cease to write any new business and commence the orderly run-off of its existing portfolio and the return of capital to investors.“

The company has entered into a consultation period with Lodgepine's employees and will look for redeployment opportunities for these employees within Markel's operations.

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