NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Towers Watson Capital Markets (TWCM), Inc., the wholly owned subsidiary of global professional services company Towers Watson (NYSE, NASDAQ: TW), announced it has recently arranged a private placement catastrophe bond, Oak Leaf Re 2012-1, which closed at $22.78 million. Oak Leaf Re 2012-1’s value doubled in size when compared to Oak Leaf Re’s initial insurance-linked securities offering last year. Similar to last year’s issuance, the Oak Leaf Re 2012-1 series of bonds has a one-year expected maturity. Oak Leaf Re will provide indemnity-based collateralized catastrophe reinsurance coverage for a Florida homeowner’s specialty insurance company, which is a brokerage client of Towers Watson.

While showing further maturation in its capital markets risk management program, TWCM arranged for Oak Leaf Re 2012-1 to contain three layers of the cedant’s risk management program, including a reinstatement premium protection layer. Similar to last year, the Oak Leaf Re 2012-1 program also covers a layer that provides both top-layer and aggregate protection of the cedant’s program. TWCM also demonstrated that its private placement catastrophe bond offering has growing investor appeal, as Oak Leaf Re 2012-1 expanded the number of investors compared to its initial offering last year, with some investors participating in more than one layer.

“Towers Watsons’s presence in this marketplace has been well received, evidenced by the increased number of investors participating in the risk transfer mechanism,” Mike Popkin, TWCM senior vice president, observed. “TWCM expects that the increased number of investors should continue to expand the secondary market liquidity, which was established during the inaugural year of the Oak Leaf Re program.”

“Insurance-linked securities continue to develop as important risk financing tools in the convergence marketplace, with a growing acceptance of private placement catastrophe bonds,” Rick Miller, TWCM senior vice president, said. “Towers Watson will continue to build its insurance-linked securities platform, and we eagerly anticipate bringing other cedants to market in the future.”

About Towers Watson Capital Markets, Inc.

Towers Watson Capital Markets, Inc., is a wholly owned subsidiary of Towers Watson that advises clients in the areas of risk-linked securities, retirement risk transfer transactions and asset risk management services, including evaluating and facilitating risk management solutions involving securities and other capital market instruments.

About Towers Watson

Towers Watson (NYSE, NASDAQ: TW) is a leading global professional services company that helps organizations improve performance through effective people, risk and financial management. The company offers solutions in the areas of employee benefits, talent management, rewards, and risk and capital management. Towers Watson has 14,000 associates around the world and is located on the web at towerswatson.com.

Towers Watson
Josh Wozman
+1 703-258-7670
josh.wozman@towerswatson.com
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Binoli Savani
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Source: Towers Watson