AXA XL hurricane Ida claims estimated €400m net of reinsurance

AXA XL, the commercial insurance and reinsurance operation of the global AXA Group, is expected to take a hit of roughly EUR 400 million from hurricane Ida, net of reinsurance recoveries and before tax.

The unit will also have taken its share of losses from the European floods that struck in the third-quarter as well, which AXA had previously revealed would cause it another roughly EUR 400 million loss, after reinsurance.

But despite this, AXA Group reported that for the first nine-months of 2021 the company continued to expand its property and casualty commercial lines business, with 7% growth in total revenues for the Group and 5% in P&C lines.

The commercial segment grew 7% though, which AXA said was largely down to “favorable price effects, notably at AXA XL.”

At the same time, AXA XL continued to derisk its business, with exposure reduction continuing across some areas of its book.

One of those is in property catastrophe risks, where AXA XL also leverages third-party reinsurance capital through its AXA XL ILS Capital Management unit.

It’s safe to assume that the units investors will share in AXA XL’s expected claims burdens from hurricane Ida and the European floods.

AXA XL’s nine-month revenues were up 6% on a comparable basis in 2021, to EUR 14.35 billion, driven by the P&C insurance and reinsurance business.

The AXA XL unit has continued to report strong price increases at renewals, of positive 15.3% across its insurance lines and 8.9% in reinsurance, as market conditions continue to improve.

The impacts of hurricane Ida and the European flooding earlier in Q3, likely drove some reinsurance and retrocession recoveries for the AXA Group, as well as some of the claims burden being shared with its third-party ILS investor base.