Crawford expects ‘significant’ Sandy claims volumes

Global loss adjuster Crawford & Company expects Superstorm Sandy to generate ‘significant’ claims volumes for the company in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Crawford chief executive Jeffrey Bowman said in the company’s third-quarter results statement: “We are mobilising our resources to assist our clients in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy.”

Crawford enjoyed a record third quarter in 2012. After-tax profit jumped 19%, to $18.2m (£11.3m) (Q3 2011: $15.3m).

Revenues were up 7%, to $302.1m (Q3 2011: $283m).

Bowman said the record quarterly revenues, profit and earnings per share his company reported in the third quarter were driven by strong performance in its EMEA/Asia-Pacific sand Legal Settlement Administration segments and improvement in its Broadspire segments.

Despite the good third quarter, however, Crawford’s after-tax profit  of $34.7m for the first nine months of 2012 was 15% down on the $40.9m it reported in the same period last year. The main reason was a 63% drop in operating earnings in its Americas business segment to $7.4m (9M 2011: $20.1m, owing to industry-wide low claims volumes.

Bowman said the Americas segment saw an increase in claims in the third quarter from Hurricane Isaac and catastrophe-related claims in Canada. “This helped generate sequential improvement over the 2012 second quarter results of this segment, despite relatively weak industry-wide claim volumes which have persisted throughout 2012,” Bowman said.

For the full 2012 year, Crawford expects consolidated revenues before reimbursements of between $1.13bn and $1.14bn and profit after tax of between $37.5m and $40.8m.

The full-year estimates exclude any potential benefit from Samdy claims.