Reinsurers on watch for Hurricane Milton impact
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REINSURERS ON WATCH FOR HURRICANE MILTON IMPACT
The densely populated west coast of Florida, still reeling from the devastating Hurricane Helene less than two weeks ago, is bracing for landfall from the Category 4 Hurricane Milton, with evacuations ordered for over a million people.
Analysts at Barclays are estimating the insured loss from the hurricane could exceed $50 billion, with the largest reinsurers taking a significant part of the high-severity loss.
"We see potential for a devastating storm that may surpass Hurricane Ian," Barclays says, noting however that the range of outcomes remains very wide, ranging from a $10 billion loss (for a Category 3 hit 80 miles south of Tampa) to over $100 billion.
The insured loss from Ian was around $60 billion.
Barclays notes that an insured loss of $75 billion could lead to changes in the capital return approach of reinsurers.
"A potential large loss from hurricane would serve as both an earnings dampener, lowering capital build in 2H24 and also potentially reducing capital buffers - both of which would likely have implications for capital return," they write.
Still, the strong capital position and earnings buffers of Munich Re and Hannover Re mean they should be able to absorb the impact with "relative ease", taking impacts of 27% and 14% of pre-tax profit, respectively.
Britain's Beazley may benefit from lowest exposure of the names they cover, Barclays says. On the other hand, SCOR, Lancashire and Swiss Re may be most exposed, it adds.
SCOR has the lowest capital surplus, while Lancashire has the highest exposure as a percentage of equity.
For Swiss Re, Barclays believes a substantial hurricane hit may delay management efforts to increase its casualty reserves and "remain adrag on the investment case into what may be a harder reinsurance market for 2025".
(Samuel Indyk)
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