Allianz Estimates Its European Flood Losses at $467M

Allianz SE, Europe’s biggest insurer, said preliminary estimates show its net losses from the flood claims in Germany, Austria and part of Central Europe are 350 million euros ($467 million).

The gross impact, before reinsurance, is “probably” above 500 million euros, the Munich-based insurer said in a statement on its website today. The insurer will update those figures when it releases second-quarter results on Aug. 2.

The claims insurers face from the flooding this month in central Europe may be lower than those in 2002, when Allianz reported flood losses of 710 million euros. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said yesterday the federal states and her government will set up a special 8 billion-euro fund to pay for damage caused by the floods, which came after rivers, including the Vltava, Danube and Elbe, burst dams and breached their banks following heavy rainfall.

The floods are not a “huge” issue for insurers, Fabrizio Croce, a Zurich-based analyst with Kepler Cheuvreux, said in a note to investors on June 12.

(Editors: Dylan Griffiths, Steve Bailey.)