The upside of catastrophe: How to invest in disaster reinsurance

Annabelle Williams speaks to Credit Suisse's Rajiv Punja about his bets on disaster reinsurance.

However difficult the market environment, the idea of investing to make a return from catastrophe strikes an unsavoury note with many investors. From UK floods to US tornadoes, newspaper headlines have regularly captured the scale of the damage wrought by natural disasters. Insurer balance sheets have been hit by massive claims, with the 2011 tornado season – the worst in recorded history – costing US insurers $25bn, according to catastrophe modelling agency AIR Worldwide. However, for reinsurers which cover the losses of insurance companies, the occurrence of a catastrophe can often ...