Latin America

The most important Latin American markets for our company are Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador. Along with the writing of agricultural risks, catastrophe covers are especially interesting here.

The effects of the financial and economic crisis on Latin America were considerably milder than in Europe; the most severe repercussions were felt in Mexico. An adverse factor here – albeit in other countries too – was that workers abroad stopped sending money home. In Venezuela the political situation has created a difficult environment for insurers and reinsurers, and we therefore operate very cautiously in this market.

Our goal for 2010 was to boost premium income; we accomplished this in most markets. Within our underwriting policy we placed a greater emphasis on the casualty sector, because rates here tended to be more stable. On the other hand, the importance of industrial business in our portfolio continues to diminish.

In Brazil, where we have maintained a representative office since 2008, we operate as an “admitted reinsurer”. We were able to acquire additional market shares in the year under review. The primary market is growing very rapidly, and considerably more quickly than the reinsurance market. Competition is tending to intensify in this market on both the insurance and reinsurance side, and we therefore practice a highly selective underwriting strategy.

The earthquakes in Haiti and Chile in the year under review not only represented two enormous human disasters – the Chile earthquake also produced an exceptionally heavy burden of major claims for the (re)insurance industry. With an estimated market loss of around USD 12 billion, the Chile earthquake is the largest loss event in Latin America. For Hannover Re, the net strain from this event was EUR 181.9 million; the earthquake in Haiti cost our company EUR 27.2 million.