Towers Watson Capital Markets announced Thursday that it recently arranged a private placement catastrophe bond, sponsored by New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance Group.

The bond, Sullivan Re 2013-1, closed at $60 million and represents the first foray into the insurance-linked securities capital markets for NJM, a New Jersey provider of personal auto, workers’ compensation, homeowners, commercial auto and other commercial coverages.

TWCM arranged for Sullivan Re 2013-1 to contain a single layer of NJM’s risk management program. Sullivan Re has a three-year maturity and will provide per-occurrence indemnity-based, collateralized catastrophe reinsurance coverage for NJM’s New Jersey and Pennsylvania marketing territories.

“The ILS market continues to transform traditional reinsurance while becoming more accessible to smaller players,” said Michael Popkin, TWCM’s co-head of ILS, said in a statement.

“This is creating a market trend we expect to continue, where new cedents are eager to develop instruments that investors want to participate in.”

Towers Watson Capital Markets, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Towers Watson, which 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.

Towers Watson is a global professional services company that helps organizations improve performance through effective people, risk and financial management.

Source: Towers Watson