FBD sees net hit from Storm Éowyn at €30m

FBD, the Republic’s only indigenous insurer, said on Thursday it expects to take a €30 million net hit from claims stemming from the recent Storm Éowyn.

The estimate came as the company also disclosed that it expects its pretax profit to come to €75 million, which, it said is ahead of market expectations.

Davy analyst Diarmaid Sheridan said that he had been expecting a figure of €55 million for 2024.

“This is a result of strong business growth during 2024, positive underwriting results and increased investment returns,” said the group, which is led by chief executive Tomás Ó Midheach.

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FBD had come out ahead of scheduled results on a number of occasions in recent years to say that its earnings would be better than the market had been expecting, often boosted by releasing reserves that had previously been set aside for claims that proved to be too pessimistic.

The group has also topped up regular dividends in recent years with large surplus capital distributions. The latest results are likely to underpin expectations for further excess cash returns – though this may be tempered as the group counts the cost of claims stemming from Storm Éowyn, which swept through the country last month.

Insurance Ireland, the industry representative body, estimated last week insurers could see claims resulting from the storm reaching as much as €200 million, making it the fourth-most-costly weather events for the sector since the beginning of the century.

The impact of the weather event would likely result in €150 million to €200 million of damage claims costs, it said at the time, based off initial estimates from individual insurers.

“Storm Éowyn, which occurred on Friday 24 January, is set to be the single biggest storm in FBD’s history. This followed the very cold spell of early January, which led to a significant amount of snow related damage,” the company said.

“In the aftermath of these weather events, FBD has been working hard to support its customers.”

FBD added: “While it is still too early to determine the total number and gross cost of claims from the weather events of January 2025, FBD’s reinsurance programme provides cover for extreme events and this will mitigate the financial impact to FBD. As a result, the overall net cost (including reinstatement premium) for January 2025 weather is currently expected to be approximately €30 million.”

Power was due to be restored to all customers affected by Storm Éowyn last Tuesday night, according to ESB Networks. It marked the end to a prolonged period of outages across much of the country in the wake of the extreme weather event.

Services across more than 768,000 homes, farms, schools and businesses were affected following the storm.

ESB Networks had scrambled all available crews and resources, as well as partner contractors and international support in order to restore power as anger mounted among those left cut off.

Technicians had come in from Austria, Finland, the UK, Germany and Norway to assist in the worst affected areas. They supplemented about 2,500 local ESB crews and partner contactors as well as retied workers.

Storm Éowyn broke wind records in a number of locations with hurricane-force speeds when it hit on January 24th. According to the Marine Institute, the extreme conditions also brought waves of up to 20 metres in height, “almost the length of a tennis court”.