Fermat Capital Management has shuttered the long-standing GAM FCM Cat Bond Fund, an offshore strategy it took over as part of its recent separation with asset manager GAM, with substantially all of the investors having now moved to its newer offshore Fermat Cat Bond Fund, Artemis can report.
The specialist catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) investment manager has now closed a fund that had originally been launched back in 2004, becoming one of the longest-standing cat bond fund strategies in the marketplace.
Recall that, Fermat Capital Management had launched a new range of co-mingled ILS fund strategies back at the end of 2024.
One of those funds was the Cayman Islands domiciled offshore strategy, the Fermat Cat Bond Fund.
We understand that investors had already been moving from the GAM FCM Cat Bond Fund into that new Fermat Cat Bond Fund through 2025.
Then, in May, Fermat became the sole manager of the offshore GAM FCM Cat Bond Fund, following the well-documented end of its relationship with asset manager GAM.
By the middle of this year the assets under management in the long-standing offshore cat bond strategy had dwindled as investors continued to transition to the newer Fermat Cat Bond Fund.
In order to best serve the remainder of those investors interests, Fermat took full control of the fund and renamed the strategy as the Fermat Reintegration Cat Bond fund as an interim step.
Now, that is closing as all investors either transition to the new offshore Fermat Cat Bond Fund, or redeeming from the strategy, we understand.
The original offshore cat bond fund that Fermat managed had been launched in 2004 and was distributed by GAM since 2011. At its peak, the GAM FCM Cat Bond Fund had assets under management of as much as $2.4 billion.
We understand that around 90% of investors have stayed with Fermat, by moving across to the Fermat Cat Bond Fund.
The Fermat Cat Bond Fund is designed to have a more efficient structure, hence now becoming the main offshore strategy for the company going forwards.
A Cayman fund structure, as we said, it offers monthly liquidity and follows the typical Fermat Capital Management ILS strategy.
Fermat also offers a quarterly liquidity cat bond fund strategy, named the Fermat ILS Fund, also Cayman based and with around $280 million in AUM, we understand.
It’s also a complementary offering to the Fermat UCITS Cat Bond Fund, that offers liquidity three times per-month and has grown its assets rapidly to now more than $2.17 billion at this time. As we reported recently, the manager’s UCITS strategy that launched in early 2024 has grown by an impressive 180%+ in 2025 alone.
We understand that Fermat’s cat bond investment strategy remains unchanged across the fund options, with simply now with a range of more efficient and branded access points for its investors, with the offshore Fermat Cat Bond Fund a less constrained strategy for those allocators that do not require a UCITS structure.
Having learned all of the above, we reached out to Fermat Capital Management for comment.
Nelson Seo, Co-Founder of Fermat, told us, “This offshore fund was instrumental in establishing our presence in the cat bond market, and we’re proud of the pioneering role it played in the growth of the asset class.
“The transition of investors to our new Fermat strategy reflects a natural evolution — offering greater control, improved cost efficiency and governance, and the ability to continue delivering our 20+ year offshore strategy at scale.”
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