Asia-Pacific disasters to cost Beazley $154m

21st Apr 2011 08:33

Specialist insurer and reinsurer Beazley is crossing its fingers that there will be no more catastrophes this year after a series of disasters in the first quarter struck the Asia-Pacific region."The first quarter of 2011 has seen catastrophe losses in Australia, New Zealand and Japan. As a result of Beazley's diversified portfolio we nevertheless anticipate achieving a combined ratio for 2011 in the mid ninety percent range, provided we experience no further significant catastrophe events during the remainder of 2011," said Beazley's chief executive officer, Andrew Horton. The net cost of catastrophes in Australia, New Zealand and Japan is estimated to be $154m, the company said. The overall level of claims is developing in line with management expectations in other areas of the business."We had good support from our reinsurers for the annual renewal of our catastrophe reinsurance programmes and on 1 April they were successfully renewed for our property and reinsurance businesses," Horton added. Premium rates on renewal business decreased by 1%.Gross premiums written in the first quarter eased 3% to $426m from $438m the year before. The first three months of 2011 saw premiums fall by 3%, when compared with the equivalent period of 2010. This has been driven by reductions across all of Beazley's divisions with the exception of speciality lines.Investments and cash increased by 11% to $3,969m at the end of March 2011 from $3,581m a year earlier. The annualised investment return was 0.9% compared to 0.6% in the first quarter of 2010.---jh