Ohio Casualty Unveils Q3 CAT Losses

Ohio Casualty Corporation announced that it estimates total net catastrophe losses for third quarter 2005 to be approximately $11.6 million after-tax.

Approximately $9.8 million of the estimated catastrophe losses are related to damage incurred from Hurricane Rita and another $1.4 million from Hurricane Katrina, which is at the lower end of the range of estimated losses previously disclosed for that storm. The total catastrophe loss impact is expected to add approximately 4.9 points to the third quarter 2005 combined ratio. This compares to the third quarter 2004 catastrophe loss impact of 6.4 points and the 1998-2004 third quarter historical average combined ratio impact of 3.6 points.

In response to Katrina and Rita, Ohio Casualty had its catastrophe claims teams in place immediately prior to the storms.

After the storms the catastrophe teams began the process of contacting policyholders and agents in order to assess damage and begin the claims settlement process as quickly as possible. This effort reportedly proved to be challenging due to the extent of damage and the circumstances surrounding these storms.