With Arundo Re recently completing its eighth vintage of its 157 Re reinsurance sidecar, Mathieu Halm, Board Secretary and Chief Retrocession & Alternative Capital Officer of the firm recently told Artemis how the vehicle has become a reliable and central alternative capital vehicle for the firm, and how the company sees it as one of the cornerstones of its broader capital management framework.
During a recent interview with Artemis, Halm outlined how the strategic role of the firm’s sidecar has evolved from its inception in 2019 to its current position within Arundo Re’s broader capital management framework.
“Since its inception back in 2019, 157 Re has evolved every single year and is now entering its eighth vintage. This vehicle is now a predictable, institutionalized component of Arundo Re’s capital architecture. Initially, it was created to fuel the growth of our nat cat portfolio and to test the ILS market, but it has evolved into a core channel for diversifying external capital,” Halm explained.
“This enables Arundo Re to optimize its retrocession structure and secure additional underwriting capacity. The consistent issuance and efficient reporting have built strong and lasting investor relationships. The platform now benefits from multi-vintage performance history with clear IRR and return on capital trajectories, confirming that 157 Re is a proven, market-tested product that supports capital planning,” he continued.
“Over time, 157 Re has become a reliable and central alternative capital vehicle for Arundo Re, driving capital diversification, underwriting scalability, investor alignment, and transparency, as well as long-term strategic partnerships. We can see today that it is one of the cornerstones of Arundo Re’s broader Capital Management Framework, with both shareholders and investors recognizing it as an enduring and strategic platform.”
Looking back, Arundo Re’s seventh vintage of its 157 Re vehicle introduced a mechanism for more efficient reuse of collateral between years. Regarding this, we asked Halm to explain how this performed in practice during the 2026 renewal.
“It’s important to say that we needed to improve collateral reuse between the vintages. That’s why we put in place in 2025 a mechanism that helps address potential investor liquidity issues related to the collateral reuse,” the executive said.
“We implemented that last year, and the new vintage kept this structure for 2026 without any further changes, because it is proving to be pretty effective. I won’t go into more details, but it is working, and we didn’t change what we had done last year for this eighth vintage.”
Furthermore, with reinsurance rates beginning to show signs of stabilisation/slight softening in certain areas during the January renewals, we asked Halm to explain whether 157 Re helps Arundo Re maintain underwriting discipline across the cycle.
“The structural alignment of interest between Arundo Re’s shareholders and 157 Re’s investors serves as a safeguard against volume-driven behavior in underwriting. Keep in mind that Arundo Re cannot pursue premium growth without simultaneously retaining exposure on its own balance sheet. This ensures that the underwriting policy is always connected to the company’s risk appetite and capital management practices,” he said.
“157 Re only cedes risk that aligns with our underwriting portfolio logic. As a result, the underwriting team is required to adhere strictly to quantitative and qualitative thresholds. These thresholds remain constant and do not adjust simply because market pricing becomes more favorable or less restrictive.”
According to Halm, this approach enforces consistency and prevents deviation from established risk criteria, with the executive specifically noting that even if certain segments of the market become less strict, 157 Re continues to enforce a disciplined underwriting posture for Arundo Re.
“The key factor is that Arundo Re always retains the largest portion of the risk—we definitely have ‘skin in the game.’ Therefore, 157 Re operates not only as a capital management tool but also as a cycle-consistent underwriting driver. The structure guarantees that Arundo Re upholds its technical discipline regardless of market conditions, whether the market hardens or softens,” he added.
In addition, the 157 Re 26 vintage successfully attracted new capital from investors such as Mutuelle Centrale de Réassurance (MCR).
Given this, Halm went on to explain the importance of the sidecar investor relationships by saying, “For us, investor relationships are really at the heart of how 157 Re grows. The confidence shown by MCR in joining this new 2026 vintage is a clear recognition of the quality of the underwriting and the platform we’ve built.”
He continued: “157 Re relies on the support from long-standing partners like Boussard & Gavaudan Investment Management LLP, as well as from new entrants such as MCR, giving us both stability and incremental capacity each year. With experienced placement partners like Gallagher Re and GC Securities supporting distribution, we are able to engage a wide range of institutions and sustain year-on-year issuance.
“Ultimately, this ecosystem of trust allows 157 Re to grow in a disciplined, repeatable way, vintage after vintage. Each new vintage isn’t just a reset; it is the continuation of a relationship. That continuity is what allows us to grow our sidecar steadily without compromising on discipline, and to keep issuing year after year with the same level of transparency, alignment of interest, and investor confidence.”
Halm previously told Artemis that 157 Re is a key tool for growing Arundo Re’s property cat portfolio. Looking to the future, the executive outlined whether Arundo Re has any ambitions or plans to explore how other lines of business that the firm underwrites could be shared with capital market investors.
“Keep in mind that 157 Re is today directly focused on property nat cat, and that is what has allowed us to build a very disciplined, transparent, and repeatable platform. Looking ahead, we absolutely recognize that capital market investors are showing more and more interest in insurance risk that evolves beyond property. However, any evolution on our side would need to meet the same conditions that allowed 157 Re to succeed over the past eight vintages.
“By that, I mean a risk class that we can model first of all, a structure that remains clear and transparent, and an alignment of interest that protects both investors and our own balance sheet. So, while there is definitely no immediate plan to extend 157 Re beyond property nat cat, the principle is very simple: if another line of business, such as Casualty or Life, meets the standards of modeling quality, data transparency, and investor appetite that defines the platform today, then we would explore an extension thoughtfully, alongside the strategic plan approved by our Board.”
Concluding: “For now, the strength of 157 Re comes from the clarity and precision of its current property cat focus, and that is where we stand so far. We will see what the future holds.”
Read all of our interviews with ILS market and reinsurance sector professionals here.
