The Pioneer Investments mutual insurance-linked securities (ILS) team has now successfully grown its dedicated catastrophe bond fund strategy past the billion dollar mark, with the recently renamed Victory Pioneer CAT Bond Fund reaching $1.13 billion in assets under management this month.
Previously named the Pioneer CAT Bond Fund, but renamed to Victory Pioneer CAT Bond Fund after the closure of a transaction between Amundi US and Victory Capital Holdings, Inc. earlier this year, this mutual ILS fund strategy has expanded meaningfully in recent months.
This mutual cat bond fund had surpassed $700 million in AUM by the end of January 2025 and grew a further 28% to almost $903 million in assets by April 30th 2025, the last official reporting date.
But, Artemis can report that the Victory Pioneer CAT Bond Fund strategy has added more in AUM over recent weeks, now having reached an impressive $1.13 billion by the start of July, up by over 61% since the end of January.
The Pioneer Investments brand was resurfaced as part of the Victory transaction, while the strategy still benefits from Amundi distribution.
Amundi US had only launched its first dedicated cat bond mutual fund, the Pioneer CAT Bond Fund, in the first-half of 2023.
This has been one of the fastest growing cat bond fund strategies in the intervening period, demonstrating the popularity of cat bond and ILS investments with the US mutual fund investor community.
Meanwhile, the interval style mutual insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund that is portfolio managed by the same team, the Pioneer ILS Interval Fund, continues to have its original name.
This interval style strategy, which invests across private reinsurance and retrocession opportunities including cat bonds, quota shares, sidecars and collateralized reinsurance, counted $652 million in assets under management at the end of January this year.
As of April 30th 2025, the Pioneer ILS Interval Fund had just over $671 million in total assets, so slight growth it seems in the last quarter of record (we do not have a more recent AUM for this strategy at this time).
As a result, the combined assets under management of the two Pioneer Investments mutual ILS funds now stands at approaching $2 billion (based on the April AUM for the ILS Interval Fund and the more recent July AUM for the cat bond strategy), which is the highest level ever thanks to the strong growth of the Victory Pioneer CAT Bond Fund and the combined AUM is now up roughly 46% since the end of January.
