CEA’S URSA RE II CAT BOND BALLOONS TO $775M

The California Earthquake Authority’s Ursa Re II Ltd (2020-1) catastrophe bond has upsized to $775m, more than tripling its initial size of $250m when the CEA returned to the cat bond market with the deal in late September, Artemis.bm has reported. The deal is expected to settle this week. The issuance will give the state-administered quake insurer total outstanding cat bond capacity of $2.525bn at closing, but that figure will shrink by $400m in December, when its Ursa Re 2017-2 offering matures. The new offering is comprised of a tranche of Class AA notes that has grown to $425m from $150m and a tranche of riskier Class D notes that has upsized to $350m from $100m. The two tranches reportedly have respective initial expected losses of 0.9% and 2.53%.