Beazley sees up to $175 million hit from Hurricanes Helene, Milton

(Reuters) — Lloyd’s of London insurer Beazley said Wednesday that its initial view of its net exposure to U.S. hurricanes Helene and Milton is between $125 million and $175 million.

Insurers are bracing for large claims from the hurricanes, which caused huge damage in Florida in recent weeks, with analysts predicting up to $55 billion in insured losses.

“Despite an active hurricane season and a global cyber event, we expect to deliver an undiscounted combined ratio of around 80% for the full year,” CEO Adrian Cox said.

The insurer upgraded its combined ratio forecast earlier this year after first-half pretax profit nearly doubled.

Beazley, a major cyber insurer, said earlier this year it had no plans to alter its guidance in the wake of the CrowdStrike IT outage. It said Wednesday that the market was seeing an uptick in severity on ransomware claims but that this was not affecting its outlook.

Insurance written premiums rose by 7% to $4.6 billion through September, and Beazley was on track to deliver its full-year guidance, the insurer said in a trading statement.

Beazley said premium rates on renewed business were flat, compared with a 5% rise a year earlier.

Insurance premiums have been rising in the past few years in response to inflation and to losses from the COVID-19 pandemic, wars and natural catastrophes.

However, global commercial insurance rates fell 1% in the third quarter, the first quarterly decline in seven years, according to broker Marsh.