PERILS puts final estimate of windstorm Elon-Felix losses at €329m

PERILS AG has now provided its final estimate for the insurance industry losses caused by January 2015’s European windstorms Elon-Felix. The final estimate shows that losses grew by just one million euros since the first estimate to €329m.

PERILS AG, provider of industry-wide European catastrophe exposure, industry loss data and indices, first reported on European windstorms Elon-Felix in February 2015, when it disclosed an initial loss estimate of €328m.

Elon-Felix affected Western and Northern Europe from 8th to 11th January 2015, causing the majority of the insured losses to occur in the countries of Denmark, Germany, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The storm is also known as Dagmar-Egon in Denmark and Sweden, and as Nina in Norway.

The Elon-Felix insured loss estimate was raised that April to €335m, a 2% increase, but this was then lowered in the next estimate back to the initial €328m.

Now the loss estimate has been raised by €1m to €329m. This storm has provided a good demonstration of the process that PERILS undertakes to reach the most accurate representation of an industry insured loss.

As ever, the final insured loss estimate is available with market loss data at a higher level of granularity, with losses per CRESTA zone (two-digit postcode level) and per property line of business.

Elon-Felix posed no threat to exposed catastrophe bonds, likely only posing a small incremental threat on an aggregate loss basis for some reinsurance programmes, which as always could have featured some involvement of insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds and their investors (due to collateralized reinsurance).