Endurance, United Fire Announce Expected Cat Losses

NU Online News Service, April 15, 2:47 p.m. EDT

Bermuda-based Endurance Specialty Holdings says it expects $125 million in losses from the March 11 Japan earthquake and tsunami, and Iowa-based United Fire & Casualty Company says it expects $10 million in first-quarter catastrophe losses incurred in the company's assumed reinsurance portfolio.

Endurance, a specialty insurer and reinsurer, says its losses are pretax and net of reinsurance and reinstatement premiums.

United Fire says the $10 million in losses, pretax, from the assumed reinsurance portfolio stem from the Japan quake and the February earthquake in New Zealand. The company says it expects assumed premiums of approximately $1.5 million.

“The estimated losses for these catastrophe events would be expected to contribute approximately 9.8 percentage points to the first-quarter [property and casualty] combined ratio,” the company says. “The impact on after-tax earnings would be approximately $6.5 million, or .25 cents per share.”

Randy A. Ramlo, president and CEO of United Fire, says, “With assumed reinsurance contracts, United Fire accepts a percentage of the risk in return for an equal percentage of the premium, which allows our company to diversify across a broader base of business. While assumed business has not been a significant component of our property and casualty operations over the years, it traditionally has been a positive contributor to our bottom line.”

He adds, “Despite the magnitude of these events relative to our first-quarter results, these losses would contribute, on an annualized basis, less than 1.7 percentage points to our total combined ratio.”