RenRe to Form New Catastrophe Reinsurer

RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. announced that it was forming a new Bermuda-based property catastrophe reinsurer, DaVinci Reinsurance Ltd., with an initial capitalization of $500 million.

State Farm Mutual Automobile insurance Co. is investing $200 million, RenRe plans to put up $100 million, and other investors are providing the rest. CEO James Stannard said he was pleased to form another joint venture with State Farm, following there partnership in OPCat. RenRe “will offer capacity of $200 million per program from three strong reinsurers with over $2 billion in total capital,” Stannard indicated.

RenRe’s subsidiary Renaissance Underwriting Managers, Ltd. will manage DaVinci Re, as well as OPCat and Top Layer Re, another joint venture with State Farm, which has $4 billion in capacity available for high-layer reinsurance and retrocessional coverage.

Ren Re becomes the second insurer to set up a new Bermuda-based reinsurer in the wake of the disasters of September 11, following MarshMac’s announcement last week that it was establishing Axis Specialty Ltd.