Man Group, a global independent alternative and active investment management firm, has now launched its awaited UCITS catastrophe bond fund managed under the Man AHL brand, with the Man Systematic Cat Bonds fund having become operational earlier this month, Artemis can report.
We first revealed back in February 2025 that the Man AHL arm, a unit that has a focus on systematic strategies to deliver diversification as well as returns to investors, was in the process of applying for authorisation to launch a UCITS cat bond fund.
At that time we had been told that the application had been submitted to the regulator in Ireland, to authorise Man AHL to operate a UCITS cat bond fund strategy.
Approval was secured for the Ireland domiciled UCITS strategy and now we can report that the Man Systematic Cat Bonds fund has begun its operations and is available to investors, with its first NAV as of October 3rd 2025.
The Man Systematic Cat Bonds fund will invest on a long only basis in a portfolio of catastrophe bonds, with natural catastrophe bonds expected to be the predominant type of asset held, while up to 10% of its assets can be held in non-cat cat bonds such as cyber and terrorism, as well as life and health risk exposed deals.
AHL Partners LLP, a registered alternative fund manager, will manage the investment portfolio for this UCITS cat bond fund strategy, while Man Asset Management (Ireland) Limited is the management company.
The Man Systematic Cat Bonds fund appears to be available currently in three currencies, with USD, EUR and GBP classes.
As of the latest net asset value (NAV) available, we understand the Man Systematic Cat Bonds fund has just under $15.07 million in AUM.
Man AHL has a long-standing dedicated catastrophe bond fund strategy, the AHL Cat Bond Programme, which follows a long-only systematic approach to provide investors with exposure to insurance risk premia through tradable insurance assets, so typically 144A cat bonds.
Man AHL’s established dedicated cat bond fund strategy is domiciled in the Cayman Islands. The AHL Cat Bonds Master Limited structure had a reported more than $420 million in assets as of a recent filing.
But the investment manager also includes catastrophe bonds in other multi-strategy funds, we understand, so the total amount of insurance-linked securities (ILS) under management at the firm is said to be a few hundred million dollars higher.
With the launch of this Man Systematic Cat Bonds UCITS fund the investment manager can open up its cat bond investment expertise to a broader and differentiated range of investors.
Now, including this new Man Systematic Cat Bonds fund there will be 18 UCITS catastrophe bond funds in operation and we continue to hear market rumours of a 19th which is said to be in the application process still.
While the ESMA view regarding the eligibility of cat bonds to the UCITS fund structure does add some uncertainty, the majority of our sources in the market are not overly concerned. Believing any ruling will take time to be reached and transition period last even longer, while there are alternative fund structures available which can play a similar role for cat bond fund managers and investors as a UCITS strategy, should there be a need to make any changes.
At this time, not yet including the new Man AHL strategy that just launched, there were 17 UCITS catastrophe bond funds, which across the group had almost $17.73 billion in cat bond assets under management as of the end of Q3 2025.
