TOWERS WATSON COMPLETES OAK LEAF RE 2012-1

Towers Watson Capital Markets has completed a $22.78m placement of a private one-year cat bond on behalf of an unnamed Florida homeowner specialty insurer, through Bermuda-domiciled Oak Leaf Re. The deal is double the size of a similar offering last year, via Oak Leaf Re 2011-1. Towers Watson Capital Markets (TWCM) said that the latest bond covered three layers of the insurer's risk programme, including a reinstatement protection layer. The deal covers both top-layer and aggregate protection. TWCM said that some investors participated in more than one layer. TWCM senior vice-president Mike Popkin said that "TWCM expects that the increased number of investors should continue to expand the secondary market liquidity".