Issued through Blue Fin Ltd., a Cayman Islands based special purpose entity, the cat bond transfers to investors the risks of windstorms in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
The bond has two tranches with an aggregate volume of €200 million ($291.3 million) and represents the first series under a program with an initial maximum size of €1 billion ($1.46 billion), Allianz said.
The insurer said that the "successful placement'' of the cat bond was a sign that investor demand for these type of securities "continues to be strong and that this market segment has been largely unaffected by the recent turmoil in the financial markets.''
Blue Fin is the largest single placement of European windstorm risk in the market for insurance-linked securitization and the second cat bond program sponsored by Allianz. In April, Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty sponsored a transaction in which Blue Wings Ltd. raised $150 million to cover the risk of U.K. flood and North American earthquake, excluding California.