Insurer Beazley sees $125-175 million hit from Hurricanes Helene, Milton

LONDON (Reuters) -Lloyd's of London insurer Beazley said on Wednesday that its initial view of its net exposure to U.S. hurricanes Helene and Milton was between $125 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," chief executive Adrian Cox said.

Combined ratio is a measure of underwriting profitability, in which a level below 100% indicates a profit.

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 on 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 in the nine months to end-September and Beazley was on track to deliver its full-year guidance, it said in a trading statement.

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

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.

(Reporting by Carolyn Cohn, editing by Kirstin Ridley and Sinead Cruise)