Amundi US Investment Management has continued to experience strong demand for its most recently launched dedicated insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund strategy, with the Pioneer CAT Bond Fund now surpassing $500 million in assets under management.
Because of continued success in raising capital for the cat bond fund, Amundi US has now taken its dedicated ILS fund assets under management to above $1.2 billion.
While the investment manager now deploys around $2 billion of capital to cat bonds and other ILS opportunities in total, through the 2 dedicated ILS strategies and its range of multi-asset and glued income funds that incorporate ILS as a diversifier.
Recall that, Amundi US launched its dedicated cat bond mutual fund, the Pioneer CAT Bond Fund, within the first-half of 2023.
The Pioneer CAT Bond Fund reached $84.2 million in assets by the tip of October 2023 and delivered its investors an 11.20% net asset value (NAV) return from launch to that point.
The cat bond fund strategy surpassed $150 million in assets at its one 12 months anniversary in late January 2024, then grew further to $218 million by the tip of February 2024, later reaching $338 million by early July this 12 months after which just over $358 million at the tip of July 2024, before reaching $426 million by October this 12 months.
Capital raising continued over recent weeks, with the Pioneer CAT Bond Fund now reaching the $500 million in assets milestone as of this week.
The investment manager has experienced impressive demand for its first pure cat bond fund strategy and Artemis spoke with Chin Liu, Amundi US’ Director of Insurance-Linked Securities (ILS) and Portfolio Manager.
On the expansion seen within the cat bond fund strategy Liu told us, “We have now been pleased with the continued market acceptance of our cat bond strategy – each by newer investors to this asset class in addition to long-term clients that decide to have a more liquid alternative to enhance their other ILS exposures.”
Adding, on future ambitions for the strategy, “Just like how we manage our dedicated ILS funds, we wish to proceed to grow these strategies in a thoughtful and disciplined fashion by attracting investors who value the long-term value proposition of this structurally uncorrelated asset class to construct more resilient portfolios.”
Liu went on to focus on ILS market conditions, saying, “As a really very long time investor on this asset class we, we proceed to stay very constructive on the attractiveness of ILS, each on an absolute basis in addition to in comparison with many other traditional asset classes.”
Amundi US now manages over $1.2 billion in ILS assets across the dedicated cat bond strategy and its longer-standing dedicated mutual ILS fund strategy that allocates to a wider-range of reinsurance instruments, the Pioneer ILS Interval Fund.
The Pioneer ILS Interval Fund reached $707 million in assets recently, reflecting regular growth through 2024.
With Amundi US also allocating to cat bonds and other ILS across a variety of the multi-asset strategy funds under its management, the corporate currently allocates around $2 billion of capital to the ILS asset class.