Hiscox and Beazley escape major Deepwater hits

12th May 2010 11:45

Hiscox has dodged any major payout relating to the Deepwater Horizon, Gulf of Mexico disaster, with the Lloyds underwriter putting its exposure at below £10m."Hiscox is a leading underwriter of offshore energy business but relative to our size we have a small exposure to this event. For an industry insured loss of up to $2bn we anticipate net claims of less than £10m," it said.The insurer added that gross written premiums grew year on year by 6.4% in local currencies to £504.1m (2009: £486.5m) in the three months to March. "The group made a good profit despite the winter freeze, the Chilean earthquake, Windstorm Xynthia and recessionary related claims in UK commercial. Rates in reinsurance and many of the Group's specialty lines continue to present opportunities in a challenging environment," it added.The investment return to 31 March 2010 was 1.3%.Invested assets totalled around £2.8bn at the end of March and asset allocation remained largely unchanged during the first quarter.Rival Beazley, meanwhile, put its exposure to the Gulf of Mexico disaster even lower, at about $6m. The outlook for the development of the 2009 underwriting year of the energy account and for 2010 reserve releases from the overall marine account remains strong.Estimates of the claims cost from the Chile earthquake remains in the range of $55m to $75m, Beazley added.Premiums for the three months to March rose by 19% to $438.2m (2009 $368.9m), while its investment return came in at 0.6%.