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Tower lowers annual profit guidance by up to $14 million after North Island weather double whammy

Insurance / news
Tower lowers annual profit guidance by up to $14 million after North Island weather double whammy
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Insurer Tower has reduced its annual profit guidance by up to $14 million following the recent Upper North Island floods and Cyclone Gabrielle.

Tower has reduced its September year underlying net profit after tax guidance to between $18 million and $23 million, down from a previous range of $27 million to $32 million. Last year's underlying profit was $27.3 million.

Tower has also reduced its annual dividend forecast to 5 cents per share from 6.5 cents per share. Last year it paid 6.5c.

Tower says it has received about 4,850 claims to date stemming from the floods in Auckland and the Upper North Island in late January. It estimates the ultimate cost of the Auckland and Upper North Island "weather event" will be between $95 million and $125 million worth of customers' insurance claims.

"Costs for this event will predominantly be covered by Tower’s reinsurance for catastrophe events which has an excess of $11.875 million," Tower says.

In terms of Cyclone Gabrielle, Tower says it has received about 945 claims for damage and is in the early stages of estimating its financial impact.

"Tower expects further claims as people in affected areas regain access to their properties and power and communications are restored. While there is insufficient information to estimate the ultimate cost of Cyclone Gabrielle, Tower expects it is likely to also trigger Tower’s reinsurance for catastrophe events, with an excess of $11.875 million," Tower says.

Its reduced profit guidance "reflects positive actions taken by Tower to prepare itself for future events, including an increase in Tower’s large events allowance to $40 million, up from $30 million, and the expected cost of reinstating reinsurance arrangements."

“Our hearts go out to the many Kiwis who have been devastated by these two natural disasters in quick succession. Tower has been working tirelessly to support customers through this extremely difficult time," Tower CEO, Blair Turnbull says.

"Tower’s solvency position remains strong, despite the occurrence of potentially two catastrophic events so early in the financial year. A decision will be made on whether to pay an interim dividend when Tower’s half year results are approved, in accordance with Tower’s ordinary dividend policy, acting prudently and in light of information available at that time."

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12 Comments

Mores rises and more fineprint that dont cover things like pet damage 

I know the others as just as bad , but Tower seem use an excuse to put prices and reduce cover as we were with them for 15 years then changed 

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If only there was a document that detailed exactly what you were and weren't covered for.

If only there was easy ways to contact people in the insurance company prior to any event to check if you are covered for specific perils.

Oh wait...

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Its a case of choosing the best of a bad bunch. Was with AMI for > 10 years for all insurance. After covids they switched their business model to central support. Don't have a problem with that but after much tooing and froing by email they came up with some ridiculous request on the retaining wall which in any event was covered by the maximum of $20k in the cover clause for retaining walls. Dropped AMI them and switched to Tower at about a +2% premium on AMI. Reviewing my insurance for 22/23 I found another insurer who again was at a +1 odd % on Tower. Claims issues via trust pilot search on Tower made me switch again.

Switching from AMI I exclude the other IAG insurance companies.

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I guess we could expect the CEO to dust off his much converted award from a couple of years back. The "WooHoo! We're still here! Award" They might not get it this year.

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Hope they keep afloat and don't fold out.

I have two claims pending with them and haven't heard a word from a claims officer for weeks. I guess they are very busy and i appreciate all they are doing to help customers who need help more than i do. 

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I remember AMI coming out after CHC earthquakes saying they had it covered, not to worry...8 weeks later government bail out and sold to IAG.

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The situation in Hawkes Bay looked pretty ugly online. Probably worse on the ground. It'll start smelling shortly, especially if it warms up. We have both family & friends there & are regular visitors as we really love the place, so wishing everyone in HB & East Coast all the very best during the clean up.

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Agree with you Wrong John. I have elderly parents living there who I have been unable to contact since the cyclone (no power at their village and they don't know how to use their cell phone beyond the basic Whats App function even though cell coverage is up again) although I have established that they are both okay and their retirement village has a generator and is looking after/checking on the residents.

Whilst it's not a pressing issue in the face of what has happened, I feel that whilst the media were quick to jump into Wayne Brown re. poor communication when the Auckland floods happened a couple of weeks ago, virtually nothing is being said about the Napier authorities and what appears to be a total lack of co-ordination and provision of information regarding the power outage and just when road links will open.  I guess the national media have their pet targets and Wayne Brown happened to be one of them. 

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Warwick, I've seen and heard several media interviews with both the mayors of Napier and Hastings. Both seem to be very accessible and communicating pretty well.

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Only tangentially relevant to the article, but geoengineering is surely priced in at this point, right?

Insurance companies don’t seem fit to handle the IPCC’s moderate scenarios. And people are ploughing capital into areas with apparently high risk Florida, Texas, Auckland waterfront etc. Markets aren’t this irrational; it feels like everyone implicitly acknowledges that some state or actor is going to start pumping sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere or whatever, if things get bad enough.

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There's certainly a sense of 'not my problem'. Doesn't help when those leading big business and certain political parties are climate change deniers.

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Who are the listed insurers? This is going over a B

Of course like Christchurch it will take longer to process claims and approvals/consents than the actual re-build. 

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