Jul 12, 2016 | By Agnel Philip
(Bloomberg) -- Chubb Ltd., the insurer led by Chief Executive Officer Evan Greenberg, said second-quarter catastrophes cost more than the company had planned.
The pretax cost was about $390 million, led by events in North America, and compares with a previous internal projection of $280 million, the Zurich-based company said Tuesday in a statement.
Canadian fires, Japan earthquake
Chubb joins Bermuda-based Validus Holdings Ltd. in announcing preliminary catastrophe costs before releasing complete quarterly results. Both companies cited Canadian wildfires along with expenses from an earthquake in Japan.
“The company is providing this estimate in light of the elevated number of natural catastrophes experienced by the industry globally in the quarter, totaling more than 25 events,” Chubb said in the statement.
European floods and an Ecuadorian earthquake also contributed to the sum. The total expense was probably about $315 million after tax, Chubb said. The insurer is scheduled to report results on July 26 and hold a conference call the next day.
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Alberta wildfires costliest insured disaster ever in Canada
Jul 07, 2016 | By Katia Dmitrieva
Destroyed property in Fort McMurray, Alberta, on May 9, 2016. (Photo: AP/Rachel La Corte) (Bloomberg) — The wildfires that tore across the oil-producing region of Canada this year will cost insurers about C$3.58 billion (US$2.8 billion) in claims, the most costly insured natural disaster in the country’s history, an industry group said.
The fires led to 27,000 personal-property claims averaging C$81,000 each, and 12,000 auto claims averaging C$15,000, the Insurance Bureau of Canada said Thursday in a statement. More than 5,000 commercial claims averaged over C$250,000 and included costs from work stoppages. The estimates come from insurer surveys collected by Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc.
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Japan earthquake toll rises as economic impact expands
Apr 18, 2016 | By Aya Takada, Monami Yui
A woman prays in front of the historic Aso Shrine collapsed by powerful earthquakes in Aso, Kumamoto prefecture, Japan, Sunday, April 17, 2016. Two nights of increasingly terrifying earthquakes flattened houses and triggered major landslides. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)
(Bloomberg) -- The death toll from earthquakes that struck southern Japan rose to 42 and the economic impact began to reverberate Monday as companies surveyed damage and the potential effects on production from supply-chain disruptions.
The quakes that struck the island of Kyushu since Thursday evening included some of the nation’s most devastating earthquakes since March 2011. There are 201 people seriously injured, 838 have light injuries, and 110,816 have been evacuated to shelters, according to Kumamoto Prefecture’s disaster countermeasures office. There has been additional damage in neighboring prefectures including Oita.