Specialty insurer Beazley has increased its estimated cost of COVID-19 claims from $170 million to $340 million.
The claims are from Beazley’s first party business and almost exclusively driven by further event cancellation losses.
Given the recent surge in COVID-19 cases Beazley was forced to abandon its initial $170 million estimate, which was calculated off of the assumption that events would resume in September this year.
This latest revised figure assumes a resumption to some form of normality in the second half of 2021 and, were this not to be the case, is braced for an additional $50 million net of reinsurance.
The company has also considered the recent FCA judgement on business interruption wording and does not expect to be materially impacted.
Elsewhere, Beazley says it is seeing improved growth prospects thanks to continuing rate improvements, with an overall rate change of 13% at the end of August. Overall growth for 2020 has been estimated by Beazley to land in the mid-teens.
While investments returned $136 million up to the end of August, the company remains relatively cautious on taking investment risk given the continued uncertainty surrounding the global economy.
