Argo pegs Q4 catastrophe and COVID losses at $51m

Argo Group, the Bermuda headquartered international specialty insurance and reinsurance firm, has said that it expects to report $51 million of fourth-quarter catastrophe and COVID-19 pandemic losses, all net of any reinsurance recoveries made.

Argo pre-announced that its fourth-quarter 2020 results will be impacted by a number of natural catastrophes.

Natural catastrophes and weather related impacts are expected to reach $38 million for the fourth quarter.

Around two-thirds of these cat losses are attributed to Argo’s International business and the $38 million is reported before tax and after reinsurance recoveries have been accounted for.

The major drivers of Q4 2020’s catastrophe losses for Argo were hurricanes Delta and Zeta, but some changes to estimated losses from third quarter 2020 events are also factored into the $38 million, the company said.

On top of this, Argo has revealed that contingency line of business losses from the pandemic continue to rise for the company.

Argo said that it expects to report around $13 million of additional Q4 losses due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, with the majority coming from the contingency book in Argo’s International Operations.

Argo had already reported around $60.5 million of losses from the pandemic so far, so with this additional disclosure its aggregate COVID losses reach almost $74 million.