Munich Re beats rivals Hannover Re & SCOR on 2023 hurricane resilience
Munich Re may be best positioned among the major European reinsurers to withstand major hurricane losses despite having leaned into the hard market and garnered new exposures, a key equity brokerage is telling investor clients.
“While Munich Re typically takes the greatest share of hurricane losses among the reinsurers and remains the most geared to the hard reinsurance market, having increased its peak exposures by 22%, its balance sheet is arguably the best placed to withstand worst-case scenarios,” analysts at Berenberg said in a note to markets.
Munich Re is sitting atop a massive $17.2 billion in excess capital (measured against management's internal optimum reading ), well ahead of rivals and well beyond the reach of the group’s 22% gain in exposure to the peril.
Hannover Re, in contrast, remains underweight on Atlantic hurricane exposure, but sits atop only $6.1 billion in excess capital.
A major hurricane event might take 33% away from Munich Re's excess capital reading, but still leave the group flush with considerably more excess capital than Hannover Re after taking a smaller 23% hit to excess capital from the same event, Berenberg analysts claimed.
SCOR, suffering what Berenberg considers a weaker solvency position up front, could lose as much as 55% of its excess capital on the same event.
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