Insurance firm AXA said it sold catastrophe bonds to institutional investors worth USD 474 million or EUR 350 million. The bonds would protect insurance firms from extreme storm risk payouts. The bonds would cover insurance firms in the UK, Belgium and nine other countries in Europe.

This would be AXA's largest transaction of the notes in euros. The bonds were sold to investors through Calypso Capital II Ltd in two offerings.

AXA Global Property and Casualty Deputy Chief Executive Philippe Derieux said about the sale, "This issuance confirms AXA's strategy to diversify the group's cover against natural catastrophes, by both traditional reinsurance and alternative risk transfer such as catastrophe bonds."

Data gathered by Bloomberg revealed that AXA's deal raised the sale of catastrophe bonds denominated in euros to EUR 630 million. Last year, similar bonds reached sales of only USD 230 million.

Before AXA's record sale, another French insurance firm, Groupama, held the record for the largest sales of securities. Groupama sold EUR 280 million of the euro-denominated catastrophe bonds in July through Green Fields II Capital, according to Bloomberg.