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Insurance company Beazley hiked its estimate of the cost of Covid-19 claims related to further event cancellation losses amid a resurgence in the coronavirus.
The company's estimate of Covid-19 claims for its first part business - contingency, accident and health, marine, property and reinsurance - was raised to between US$170m and US$340m from around US$170m net of reinsurance, previously.
'This revised figure assumes a resumption to some form of normality in the second half of 2021. Were this not to be the case, we estimate that we would have another US$50m of further claims net of reinsurance,' the company said.
'We anticipate further claims based on our exposure for events in 2021,' the company said.
Beazley said it had seen ongoing rate improvements, with an overall rate change of 13% at the end of August, estimating that the overall growth for 2020 would be in the mid-teens.
Rate improvements were expected to continue into next year, with the company planning for double digit growth in 2021.
Investments returned US$136m, an increase of 2.2% to the end of August.
'Whilst we have benefited from recent improvements in investment markets, we remain relatively cautious on taking investment risk given the continued uncertainty surrounding the global economy,' the company said.