Nephila Capital Launches Gamut Re

Nephila Capital Ltd., a Bermuda-based investment manager specializing in catastrophe reinsurance and weather risk, announced the closing of its new investment vehicle, Gamut Reinsurance Ltd.

Gamut Re, which is domiciled in the Cayman Islands, “raised $310 million in a 144A offering” said the announcement. “The funds raised by Gamut Re will be used to source a diversified portfolio of natural catastrophe risks which will be managed using collateralized debt obligation (CDO) technology. Its unique structure leverages the resources of Nephila Capital’s expertise in the catastrophe bond, industry loss warranty, and reinsurance markets.”

Nephila, which was established as part of Willis, specializes in sophisticated investment vehicles, including insurance-linked securities, catastrophe bonds, insurance swaps, and weather derivatives.

Gamut Re is a sidecar type vehicle established to facilitate those investment goals. It can “participate in the property catastrophe reinsurance and catastrophe bond markets until the end of 2009,” the bulletin noted.

“We are excited to take this next logical step in the application of capital markets technology in the catastrophe risk market,” stated Barney Schauble, a partner at Nephila Capital. “Gamut Re provides a new source of collateralized capacity to reinsurance buyers while also offering a new range of securities to investors with specific risk / return appetites seeking truly non-correlated assets.”