Munich Re Group: Pre-tax burden from Winter Storm Kyrill up to the order of €600m Insured market loss estimated at €5–7bn

On the basis of current estimates, the Munich Re Group, including the primary insurance subsidiary ERGO, reckons with a pre-tax loss burden from Winter Storm Kyrill (18/19 January) up to the order of €600m.

Munich Re estimates the overall insured market loss at €5–7bn, which represents a preliminary assessment on the basis of several methods of estimation. On account of the extremely large number of small and mid-sized losses still to be evaluated, establishing the definitive loss amount requires considerable effort and will still take some time. For this reason, any forecasts regarding the losses to be expected from the winter storm continue to be a matter of considerable uncertainty at this time.

The country hit worst by the winter storm was Germany, but there were also high losses in the United Kingdom, the Benelux countries, Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic, and to a lesser degree Switzerland. The expected loss burden as a whole therefore reflects Munich Re's large share of the reinsurance and primary insurance market in Germany, its home market.

The biggest individual loss for Munich Re was the container ship MSC Napoli, which went aground off the south coast of England. This loss is likely to be in the low-to-medium two-digit million range.

Winter Storm Kyrill crossed large parts of Europe at wind speeds far exceeding 100 km/h on a widespread scale and peaks of over 200 km/h. Owing to the size of the area affected and the duration of the storm – with gale-force winds prevailing for more than 24 hours in some places – Kyrill caused numerous losses over a wide area.

Board member Torsten Jeworrek: "Kyrill is a further illustration of the high loss potential from winter storms in Europe. The storm losses were within the range to be expected on the basis of our risk models. The increasing risk from winter storms in the wake of climate change is something the insurance industry must always consider prospectively in its calculations."

Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft
signed Dr. Jeworrek           signed