Willkie acted as deal counsel advising Bridge Street Re and QBE Insurance Group Limited and its subsidiaries ("QBE") in connection with the successful completion of its second cat bond using the Bridge Street platform and the first indemnity trigger cat bond for QBE since 2013.

The transaction provides QBE with $400 million of collateralised reinsurance protection for 3 years for U.S. Named Storm, U.S. Earthquakes, Australia Earthquakes and New Zealand Earthquakes on an indemnity per occurrence basis.

Both this transaction and the prior index cat bond issuance showcase and QBE’s deal-making ability and QBE's strengthening position in the ILS market, offering both significant protection for the upcoming risk periods and also highlighting the flexibility of cat bonds to provide different forms of coverage for (re)insurance groups. The index transaction provided coverage principally to the QBE reinsurance business, whilst the most recent transaction, on an indemnity basis, provides coverage mainly for QBE’s direct insurance business.

The Willkie team was led by partners Jennifer Tait and David Griffiths with associate Zeena Sa’di, law clerk Panos Maniatis and trainee solicitor Wiktoria Szymanska. The team also included partners Arthur Lynch, Isaac Silverstein, Cindy Chernuchin, Nan-I Chen, Henrietta de Salis and Alexander Ryan.