Goshawk and Wellington Underwriting have joined the ranks of insurers predicting only limited financial impact from the £4 billion claims bill left by Hurricane Charley.
Goshawk, the owner of Rosemont Reinsurance, said that net losses to the hurricane, which killed at least 21 people and left thousands homeless as it battered Florida two weeks ago, would be less than $7 million (£3.9 million).
“The loss amount is comfortably within Rosemont Re’s annual expected loss activity for catastrophe losses and will not materially impact the expected year end result,” Goshawk said.
Wellington Underwriting said that its key 2020 syndicate was on track to meet 2004 forecasts, with Hurricane Charley not expected to have a “material impact”.
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The comments follow an estimate yesterday from Aspen Insurance Holdings of losses of between $35 million and $50 million, with Chaucher Holdings forecasting that its exposure would be “within budgeted loss ratios”. Max Re Capital on Monday estimated that hurricane claims would cut between $6 million and $9 million from third quarter earnings.
Last week, Zurich Financial forecast losses of $150 million to the storm with Swiss Re foreseeing claims of about $200 million. However, Swiss Re said that such a bill would not be sufficient to force it to miss profits forecasts and the insurance sector has so far avoided the claims catastrophe some predicted springing from a hurricane which is expected to prove the second most expensive in UK history.
The New York-based Insurance Information Institute last week predicted that the storm would prompt claims totalling $7.4 billion. However, insurers have implemented strategy changes, including premium increases and broader reinsurance, since Hurricane Andrew in 1992 caused $21 billion of damage, largely in Florida. The state itself set up a Hurricane Catastrophe Fund in response to the disaster.
Goshawk stock stood 2p lower at 47p in afternoon trade. Wellington Underwriting stock was 0.5p higher at 80.5p.