With UCITS catastrophe bond funds delivering positive returns to their investors for the month of May, it has helped to lift the trailing twelve-month return for the UCITS cat bond fund sector back to an average of 12%, according to the latest data from the Plenum CAT Bond UCITS Fund Indices.
May 2025 saw UCITS cat bond funds average 0.52% making it the second best performing month of the year so far.
Recall that, 2025 began with UCITS cat bond funds averaging a 0.40% return for the month of January on the initial effects of the wildfires in California, after which performance dropped to 0.32% return for the month of February, as certain positions wildfire related mark-downs accelerated during that month.
Then March saw the sector recover somewhat, delivering an average return of 0.56% and taking the first-quarter performance for the Plenum CAT Bond UCITS Fund Indices to 1.38%. But April saw returns depressed by mark-downs to certain positions, resulting in a 0.28% return for the segment.
Now, the positive 0.52% return across the UCITS catastrophe bond fund segment has lifted the average year-to-date return to 2.34% by May 30th.
For the month of May 2025, the lower-risk cohort of UCITS cat bond funds averaged a return of 0.56%, while the higher-risk cat bond fund strategies averaged 0.51%.
Year-to-date, it is also the lower-risk group of UCITS cat bond funds that have fared better, reflecting the fact that wildfire and severe convective storm (SCS) related losses to aggregate cat bonds impacted the higher-risk cohort of funds a little harder.
The average return for the low-risk UCITS cat bond funds stood at 2.45% by May 30th 2025, while the higher-risk strategies stood at 2.24%, according to Plenum’s Index.
On a trailing-twelve month basis, the average return for this UCITS cat bond fund Index now stands at 12%.
That’s increased from the level of 11.18% where the average 12-month return sat when we last reported on this Index.
For the lower-risk UCITS cat bond funds the trailing twelve-month return stood at 11.76% at May 30th 2025, while for the higher-risk cat bond funds in the Index the average was a little higher at 12.15%.
The twelve-month return of these UCITS catastrophe bond funds is currently sitting a little higher than the overall 10.93% at end of May yield of the cat bond market.
Analyse UCITS cat bond fund performance, using the Plenum CAT Bond UCITS Fund Indices.
Analyse UCITS catastrophe bond fund assets under management using our charts here.
Analyse catastrophe bond market yields over time using this chart.
