London (Reuters) – Lloyd’s from London said on Monday that it expected $ 2.3 billion in net loss caused by recent Los Angeles forest fires, as the insurance market declared a drop in the subscription profits from last year.
The estimated loss of forest fires in January, which killed more than two dozen people and destroyed or damaged more than 16,000 structures, follows an announcement by Munich of Germany that it faced around 1.2 billion euros ($ 1.3 billion) in fire complaints.
Hanover Re, another German reinsurer, provides complaints of 700 million euros while the French insurer AXA estimated an impact before tax of around 100 million euros.
“We would like to exercise our deepest sympathies to people affected by California fires earlier this year. Although we always assess the full impact, we do not expect it to be a capital event,” said Burkhard Keese, financial director of Lloyd, in a statement.
Lloyd’s said that estimated losses were not included in his results for 2024, which he published on Monday in a set of preliminary figures before the publication of the final results of the full year on March 20.
Keese described 2024 as an “excellent year of subscription” for Lloyd’s, because raw written bonuses increased by 6.5% on an annual basis to 55.5 billion books, mainly thanks to the growth of its property and reinsurance divisions.
However, the subscription profit dropped to 5.3 billion pounds, 10% less than 5.9 billion pounds which he declared for 2023.
Lloyd’s said that his combined ratio had increased to 86.9%, compared to 84% the previous year. The combined ratio is a measure of industry, with reading less than 100%, which means that the benefits of bonuses are higher than the amount paid in complaints.
Lloyd’s is an insurance and reinsurance commercial market, with more than 50 member companies.
(1 $ = 0.9234 euros)
(Report by Tommy Reggiori Wilkes; edition by Paul Simao)
