Sector developments and company hires

Alternative risk transfer
Arthur J Gallagher has increased its interest in Capsicum Reinsurance Brokers from 33% to 100%. Capsicum Re launched in December 2013 through a strategic partnership with Gallagher. There are no management changes as a result of the deal.

Gilles Dellaert, former co-president and cio of Global Atlantic, has been appointed global head of Blackstone Insurance Solutions (BIS) effective 1 April. The BIS platform will operate under David Blitzer, global head of Blackstone’s tactical opportunities business. Dellaert served as Global Atlantic’s chairman of the investment committee, with responsibility for investment and reinsurance activity across the life and annuity businesses. He previously worked in Goldman Sachs’ credit trading and reinsurance businesses, and spent two years with JPMorgan in Brussels, London and New York.

APAC
ING has named Jordan Batchelor director, Asia Pacific, within its global securitisation business. Batchelor was previously a director, structured capital markets at ANZ in Sydney, where he’d been employed since November 2009.

Hong Kong report released
The Asia-Pacific Structured Finance Association, the Hong Kong Institute of Bankers and the Asian Academy of International Law have jointly published a report offering specific recommendations on how to enhance Hong Kong's financial ecosystem to deliver institutional investment capital through securitisation to key sectors of the economy, such as infrastructure and SMEs. Entitled ‘Hong Kong - a Securitisation Financing Hub for Infrastructure and Small and Medium Enterprises’, the report suggests that the city needs to focus on three core areas in order to establish itself as an international securitisation hub: making available data and information about prior successful securitisation transactions; creating a marketplace for professionals; and implementing laws, regulations, tax rules and market infrastructure to support a robust securitisation market. It also stresses that the path towards establishing Hong Kong as a securitisation financing hub requires the collaboration of multiple stakeholders, including policymakers, regulators and professionals from the finance, legal, accounting, engineering, management and investment sectors.