Artex Axcell Re issues ~$4m Japanese cat bond lite in possible renewal transaction

An Artex Risk Solutions entity has issued a new private catastrophe bond arrangement, with the roughly US $4 million Artex Axcell Re (Series FE0002) transaction appearing to be a possible renewal of a previous deal, while also being denominated in Japanese Yen suggesting the cat bond lite likely covers perils from that country.

This new private cat bond transaction, or cat bond lite, has been issued by the Artex Axcell Re (Bermuda) Limited transformer and cell facility, which is operated by Artex Risk Solutions.

This structure has been regularly used over the years for transacting and the issuance of private insurance-linked securities (ILS) notes, from collateralized reinsurance to private cat bonds with the help of facilitator Artex.

Back in November 2024, we reported on a roughly US $4 million Artex Axcell Re (Series FE0001), which at the time we assumed covered natural catastrophe perils from Japan given its JPY 600 million amount of notes.

Now, this new Series FE0002 private cat bond issuance has come to market, also with a nominal value of JPY 600 million, which also puts its size in US dollar terms at just over $4 million at this time.

This new issuance sees Artex Axcell Re (Bermuda) Limited, under its ILS Note Program II, having issued JPY 600 million (roughly US $4 million) in Series FE0002 notes.

These new private cat bond notes have a due date of April 28th 2026, so their coverage runs into that month, which aligns relatively closely with the majority of reinsurance arrangements for cedents in Japan.

The previous FE0001 issuance had a due date of April 28th 2025, hence we feel it’s likely this is a renewal of that earlier and now matured private cat bond arrangement for a Japanese sponsor.

Given the Japanese Yen denomination of the private cat bond notes, we again make the assumption that they will cover a Japanese peril, likely property catastrophe risk in nature, for an unknown Japanese sponsor or entity active there.

The JPY 600 million of Series FE0002 private cat bond notes issued by Artex Axcell Re have been privately placed with qualified institutional investors and are now listed on the Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX).

As with every private ILS or cat bond deal that we uncover, until we learn more details we assume these cover a property catastrophe reinsurance or retrocession risk, in this case in Japan.

Private ILS or cat bond lite arrangements normally fit into one of a number of use-cases. Either a re/insurer or other entity is accessing coverage from the capital markets, with the risks assumed by a single ILS fund or investor, or with a small group of funds/investors. Or, they can represent ILS fund-to-fund transactions (hedging), or the transformation of a specific risk transfer arrangement, such as an industry-loss warranty (ILW), into a cat bond strategy compatible format.

Given the Japanese Yen denomination of this new private cat bond, we feel it’s more likely to represent a Japanese cedent accessing the capital markets for reinsurance through the facilitation of the Artex Axcell Re structure.

You can view details on every private cat bond we’ve tracked in the Artemis Catastrophe Bond Deal Directory. Use the filters to view only private cat bonds (filter by type).

You can also track private catastrophe bond issuance by year in this interactive chart.

We’ve added this roughly $4 million Artex Axcell Re (Series FE0002) private cat bond transaction to the Artemis Deal Directory, and what data points we have on the arrangement will be included in our catastrophe bond and ILS market statistics.