Worsening claims environment
Maybe that's what Euler Hermes was trying to say in this part of the profit warning:
"The Woolworths Group had to file for bankruptcy after unsuccessful negotiations with the banks last week. Since the beginning of this week the Euler Hermes Group has to register claims declarations on this risk, mainly in the UK and Germany, which will impact the Q4 results 2008. After a full review of all outstanding credit limits, Euler Hermes expects a global negative impact of 15 points on its Q4 loss ratio (+/- 52 million €)."
Euler stresses that this major claim comes amid a general worsening of the claims environment, which it doesn't expect to perk up any time soon. Euler's shares were down around eight percent at time of writing.
This is unlikely to be good news for the channel, which has already seen credit insurance premiums rise significantly this year.
