Grenfell Tower claims estimates double

Norway's Protector Forsikring, the insurer on the London Grenfell tower block that has been devastated by fire killing at least 80 people, has raised its expected gross claims from the tragedy to £50 million in its second quarter results report.

The sum is twice as high as a previous £25 million forecast, according to a Reuters July 7 report.

British police have said the final death toll from the blaze that gutted the 24-storey apartment block in London’s borough of Kensington on June 14 may not be known until next year.

Protector Forsikring expects the cost of the fire to be mainly picked up by its reinsurance programme meaning the impact on its earnings is expected to be negligible. Munich Re covers all of the insurer’s property claims in UK and in the Nordic market.

Protector Forsikring’s gross claims ratio jumped to 136,1 percent in the second quarter of 2017 from 89,5 in the same period a year ago mainly due to the Grenfell incident.

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