Bermuda insurers update 2011 catastrophe losses

PEMBROKE, Bermuda—Two Bermuda-based insurance and reinsurance companies Wednesday updated their estimated losses from catastrophes last year, including flooding in Thailand.

Pembroke, Bermuda-based PartnerRe Ltd. said it would record claims of about $120 million from the floods that hit Thailand late last year.

As a result of flooding in Thailand, an updated estimate of an $88 million loss from the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan and other loss activity, PartnerRe said it expects to report a pretax fourth-quarter loss of $110 million to $130 million.

Also Wednesday, Pembroke-based AXIS Capital Holdings Ltd. said it expected a $48 million loss from the Thai floods.

In addition, the insurer and reinsurer said that loss activity from the first three quarters of 2011 would negatively affect its fourth-quarter results by about $75 million.

Of that total, AXIS said, $32 million was related to the Japan earthquake and tsunami, and an equal amount to the February 2011 earthquake in New Zealand.