NU Online News Service, Feb. 16, 2:14 p.m. EST

PartnerRe Ltd. said it is estimating 2011 first-quarter losses from catastrophe activity in Australia to be between $80 million and $110 million.

The events include January flooding in Queensland and Victoria, as well as losses from Tropical Cyclone Yasi, which made landfall on Feb. 3 as a Category 4 storm in North Queensland.

Pembroke, Bermuda-based PartnerRe, a global insurer and reinsurer, said the total net loss is expected to be “primarily recorded within the company’s Global (Non-U.S.) Property & Casualty and Catastrophe subsegments.

In its fourth-quarter and year-end earnings release, Hamilton, Bermuda-based Arch Capital Group said it expects its 2011 first-quarter losses from the January flooding and Yasi to be between $30 million and $60 million.

Hamilton, Bermuda-based XL Group said it expects 2011 first-quarter losses from the January flooding to be between $75 million and $95 million.

Catastrophe modeler AIR Worldwide said its most recent industry-wide loss estimate for the January flooding is $2.99 billion to $5.98 billion. That estimate was issued on Jan. 13. The most recent estimate for Yasi losses is between $354 million and $1.5 billion. This estimate is as of Feb. 3, AIR said.

Earlier this week, the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) said the January flooding in Queensland has so far resulted in about 43,755 claims, and the group estimated insured losses to be about $2 billion.

ICA said the claims count has increased from earlier estimates as commercial and mining claims come in.

ICA said insurers have already paid about $200 million to policyholders in Queensland.

Meanwhile, ICA said flooding in Victoria State has generated nearly 6,000 claims so far and insured losses of about $67 million.

Independent reinsurance brokerage firm Holborn said it expects losses for reinsurers in the first quarter to eclipse $4 billion, with Yasi causing between $1.5 billion and $3 billion of that total.

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PartnerRe Releases 1Q Loss Estimate For Australia Cat Events

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