The cost of the tragic floods to Queensland’s major general insurer, Suncorp, is running at about $70 million to $90 million just since 8 January, and that is largely thanks to reinsurance arrangements.
That was the bottom line of the analysis released to the Australian Securities Exchange late yesterday by Suncorp’s group chief executive, Patrick Snowball.
He said the group’s comprehensive reinsurance program would limit the cost of claims relating to storm and flood damage in Brisbane and areas of south-east Queensland since 8 January to the $70 million to $90 million figure.
However, he said the company was likely to incur additional reinsurance costs of around $120 million to reinstate multiple covers for the remainder of the financial year.
The gravity of the situation confronting general insurers was brought home by the data released by Suncorp, which said that it had received approximately 2,500 claims in relation to the first weather system that impacted central and south-west Queensland from 25 December.
“Based on preliminary estimates, Suncorp expects the pre-tax cost of this event to be between $130 million and $150 million.”
