Windstorm Mike-Niklas loss estimate lowered 8% to €826m: PERILS

The third insurance industry loss estimate for European windstorms Mike & Niklas has been released this morning by PERILS AG and it sees the estimate reduced by almost 8% to €826m, taking it below the initial loss estimate.

European windstorms Mike-Niklaus are two storms which have been reported on together, due to the proximity of time in which they occurred and the resulting difficulty to separate losses from each of them.

The storms caused significant damage across Western and Central Europe, with the majority of the impact being felt in Germany, between 29th March and 1st April 2015. Niklas, also known as Lentestorm in the Netherlands, was the strongest of the two storms. The overall loss makes Mike-Niklas the biggest insurance industry hit from a European windstorm in Germany since 2007.

PERILS’ initial estimate for insured property market losses from Mike-Niklas was €853m (approx $952m or £618m), published in May. The second loss estimate was released in June, with a figure 5% higher at €895m.

Today the insured property market loss has been updated again, in-line with PERILS reporting procedure, at €826m (approx $931m or £613m).

Luzi Hitz, CEO of PERILS, commented on the update; “The third loss report for Mike-Niklas provides market loss data per CRESTA zone and property line of business. In combination with the PERILS market sums insured and gust speed data, the loss footprint is ideally suited for market benchmarking and to calibrate European wind risk models using actual data.

“In the case of Mike-Niklas, this is of particular benefit to the German market where the vast majority of the insured losses occurred and where virtually no region remained loss-free. In fact, Mike-Niklas represents the biggest windstorm market loss for Germany since windstorm Kyrill in January 2007.”

Edi Held, Head of Products at PERILS, added; “This third loss report for Mike-Niklas also contains, for the first time, maximum gust values per CRESTA zone from the UK Met Office. Going forward, our CRESTA-based loss reports will contain gust values from three different sources: the German Met Office (DWD), EuroTempest and the UK Met Office. In our view, this further increases the value of the PERILS database, especially in terms of validating vulnerability data.”

The next update to the European windstorm Mike-Niklas loss estimate will be released by PERILS on the 29th March 2016.

Mike-Niklas Loss Footprint: The map shows insured property market losses per CRESTA zone and km2 for storm Mike-Niklas which occurred between 29 March and 1 April 2015. PERILS estimates the total market loss of Mike-Niklas at EUR 826m (third loss report)