Kyrill losses not dramatic, but still costly; SCOR

PARIS—SCOR, the French reinsurance group, has underlined market assumptions that Winter Storm Kyrill, which battered Northern Europe two weeks ago, has not caused many major losses, but will still deliver a large number of collectively costly small losses.

The Paris-based reinsurance group, that recently attained its much-needed credit rating upgrade back into the 'A' range by the leading agencies, announced today that it would incur pre-tax technical losses from the storm of between €25 million and €30 million.

SCOR said that its preliminary estimates emanate mainly from SCOR global P/C clients in the German market, as well as on a dozen or so other markets including Austria, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Poland, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, Scandinavia and Switzerland.

It said that the losses incurred in the German market represent around 75% of the estimated amount of technical charges linked to the storm.

"Global P/C's business solutions division, which specializes in large industrial risks, did not record any significant losses," said SCOR.

"The damage caused by 'Kyrill' is characterized by a large number of small losses, mainly affecting individual insurance and commercial risks," it continued.