Cincinnati Insurance Estimated Third-Quarter Cat Losses Up to $98M

The Cincinnati Insurance Companies’ property casualty group expects its third-quarter results to include pre-tax catastrophe losses of approximately $88 million to $98 million, with its commercial lines insurance segment accounting for almost two-thirds of that total.

Steven J. Johnston, president and chief executive officer, commented, “The impact of storm losses on our third-quarter combined ratio will be significantly higher than our historical 10-year average of 4.9 percentage points for the third quarter and 4.4 points on a full-year basis. The estimated impact of catastrophe losses on our third-quarter 2011 ratio would be approximately 11.5 to 12.5 percentage points, based on estimated property casualty earned premiums. Roughly one-third of our third-quarter storm losses were from Hurricane Irene, the first hurricane to hit the U.S. since 2008. The remaining two-thirds included eight other third-quarter events.”

“While Irene caused an estimated $5 billion of insured losses for our industry, careful management of our company’s coastal exposures in these and other states limited its impact, ” he said. “Most of our Irene losses stemmed from wind damage to commercial property we insure in North Carolina and Virginia, our fifth and sixth largest states in terms of 2010 commercial lines earned premiums.”

Source: Cincinnati Financial Corporation