News - Hannover Re hit hard by Katrina.

(From Reinsurance)

Hurricane Katrina is possibly set to become the most-expensive-ever natural disaster suffered by insurers in industry history, according to Hannover Re. Estimates of the total insured losses currently amount to $30bn.

Hannover Re has announced that it now anticipates a net-loss burden resulting from this hurricane of EUR250m before tax. It should also be noted that the financial year had already witnessed an above-average intensity of major claims prior to Hurricane Katrina.

According to Hannover Re, the company bases its profit expectation on a number of factors - including projected major-loss expenditure in the order of 6% of net premiums earned in property and casualty reinsurance; this figure reflects the multi-year average burden of major losses.

As of 30 June 2005, actual expenditure on major losses - at EUR112.3m, or 6.1% of net premiums - was still roughly on a par with this level.

The third quarter then saw numerous additional major-loss events: Hurricane Dennis in the US; damage to an oil platform in the Indian Ocean; several aviation claims; flooding in Mumbai, India; and most recently, the floods in German-speaking parts of the Alpine region.

All in all, the major loss expenditure ...