King Ridge Capital : Europe’s First Catastrophe Bond ETF Lists on London Stock Exchange

KRC Cat Bond UCITS ETF (CATB) gives retail investors access to an insurance‑linked asset class that offers floating‑rate income and low correlation to traditional markets.

The KRC Cat Bond UCITS ETF (CATB) is a actively managed fund that provides exposure to a diversified portfolio of cat bonds, which transfer natural‑disaster risk from insurers and reinsurers to the capital markets. The ETF is managed by specialist insurance‑linked securities (ILS) manager King Ridge Capital and is distributed by HANetf.

The ETF is also listed on Xetra (ticker C47B GY) and Borsa Italiana (CATB IM) as of earlier dates. Its inception date was 2 December 2025.

Investment strategy
The fund invests primarily in catastrophe bonds that cover well‑defined natural perils such as U.S. hurricane, U.S. earthquake, European windstorm and Japanese earthquake. The portfolio is constructed using an analytics‑driven process that emphasises peril diversification, trigger structure, expected loss, spread, coupon, sponsor quality and secondary‑market liquidity. The strategy targets bonds with 1–3 year durations, maintaining a laddered maturity profile to enhance liquidity. Portfolio turnover is driven by relative‑value opportunities, primary issuance dynamics and evolving catastrophe‑risk conditions.

Market context
The cat‑bond market recorded a landmark year in 2025. Total Rule 144A and private cat‑bond issuance reached over $25.6 billion, while the outstanding market size grew to a record $61.3 billion. This growth reflects increasing adoption of cat bonds as a source of reinsurance protection and an alternative asset class. The launch of a UCITS ETF structure makes this historically institutional‑only market accessible to a broader range of European investors.

Key considerations for investors

• Uncorrelated returns: Cat bond returns are driven by natural events rather than economic cycles or market sentiment, offering potential diversification benefits during periods of equity or credit volatility.

• Floating‑rate income: Cat bonds typically provide yields derived from short‑term, high‑quality collateral plus a risk premium, resulting in floating‑rate income with minimal duration or credit exposure.

• Active management: The fund is actively managed by King Ridge Capital, which employs advanced catastrophe modelling, scenario stress‑testing and real‑time event monitoring to manage portfolio risk.

• Risks: Investors are exposed to catastrophe‑loss events, sponsor credit risk, liquidity risk and currency‑exchange movements. Capital is fully at risk and may not be returned.

Outlook
The listing of Europe’s first cat‑bond ETF arrives at a time when investor demand for non‑correlated, floating‑rate assets is rising. By combining the specialist expertise of an ILS manager with the transparency, daily liquidity and regulatory safeguards of the UCITS ETF wrapper, the product aims to deliver efficient access to a niche but growing segment of the fixed‑income universe.