Oliver Gill

One of Lloyd’s of London’s best-known insurers today revealed a series of natural catastrophes are to cost the firm up to $275m (£206m).

London-listed Beazley estimated the fall-out of hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria alongside earthquakes in Mexico would reduce bottom line earnings by $150m.

However, it added: “Currently there is significant uncertainty surrounding the cost of these events.”

Further details will be provided in Beazley‘s third-quarter trading update in November.

Earlier this week Lloyd’s of London boss Inga Beale said the summer storms that lashed the Caribbean and United States would lead to net losses of $4.5bn for the corporation.

Lloyd’s profits dipped 16 per cent to £1.2bn for the first half of 2017, though the figures did not take into account the impact of recent natural catastrophes.

Insurers are hoping that 2017’s catastrophes will reverse a trend of lowering insurance pricing for natural disasters.

Lloyd’s firms, which are one of the world’s largest underwriters of catastrophe policies, are dependent on the occurrence of natural disasters to prop up demand for such policies. Analysts have predicted that a summer of storms will at least halt the decline in premiums and could see them return to more profitable levels.