Everest Re expects to take second-quarter charge of $250M

Everest Re Group Ltd. expects to take a second-quarter charge of about $250 million to boost reserves in the wake of added claims expenses related to the 2017 catastrophe season, primarily hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, the company said in a statement Friday.

The reserve adjustments stem from prior year catastrophe events driven mainly by “re-opened claims reported in the second quarter and loss inflation from higher than expected loss adjustment expenses and, in particular, their impact on aggregate covers,” the statement said.

Everest added that current-year, weather-related events are expected to result in a second-quarter charge of about $25 million, after tax, but the company still expects to report net income for the second quarter of 2018.

“The number of re-opened claims and the extraordinary surge in LAE were well above the market expectation,” Dom Addesso, Everest president and CEO, said in the statement, adding, “it is helpful to keep this loss development in context” and that the company’s non-catastrophe reinsurance portfolio and insurance book “continue their favorable trends and should produce an excellent result in the second half of the year.”