According to Moody’s Investors Service, the insurance losses from the capsized Costa Concordia cruise ship from Carnival Corp off the Italian coast could break the $1 billion mark once all of the injuries and environmental damage are included in the tally.
James Eck, the senior credit officer at Moody’s published a note that stated that the sunken ship “marks the first major insured loss of 2012 and will result in a drag on first-quarter 2012 earnings for affected firms.”
Though the ship’s damage, itself will cost an estimated $500 million, additional factors such as environmental losses and personal injury and liability will also come into play and may raise that final total quite significantly. Moody’s also indicated that the majority of the cost will be taken on by reinsurers.
Another report, made by Jefferies International Ltd, has speculated that the total losses associated with the sunken cruise ship will total approximately $850 million (650 million Euros).
At the time that it sunk, the Costa Concordia had been carrying passengers and crew totaling 4,200 people. The Mediterranean cruise ship capsized when it struck rocks off small Giglio Island off Italy on January 13, and ran aground. Fifteen people are dead as a result of the disaster, and 24 people remain missing.
The largest reinsurer in the world, Munich Re, said that its own loss estimates would likely be in the “mid double-digit-million Euro range.” Another reinsurer, Hannover Re, said that it estimated its own losses to be approximately 30 million Euros. Lancashire Holdings, a specialty insurer expects that it will likely face claims worth between $20 million and $30 million.
