The Insurance Australia Group Ltd (ASX: IAG) share price had a blast on the ASX today despite news its subsidiary, NRMA Insurance, received a record number of home damage claims this spring.
Around 10,000 NRMA customers living in NSW, Queensland, and the ACT turned to the insurer for funds after wild weather damaged their properties over the 3 months ended 31 November. Not to mention, there could be more to come.
Despite the news, the IAG share price surged 2.36% on Tuesday, ending the session trading at $4.34.
Let's take a closer look at what last season brought the insurer.
Image source: Getty Images
IAG share price surges despite wild weather impacts
Over the last season, NRMA received 35% more home damage claims than it does in an average spring.
Additionally, 66% of those claims were for damage caused by wild weather. Normally, wild weather only equates for 55% of springtime home insurance claims.
NRMA Insurance executive manager of natural perils, Mark Leplastrier summed up some of the incredulous claims the insurer received last season:
From flooding in central NSW and western QLD, to tornadoes and earthquakes hitting NSW and Victoria, as well as record rain and hail events across the east coast – it has been an ominous start to Storm Season.
And the damage likely won't end there. Leplastrier urged Australians to prepare for a wet and possibly wild summer:
[W]ith a La Niña system now declared, we could be in for more wet weather over summer … it's important that people start thinking about how they can protect their homes from thunderstorms and fast moving hailstorms.
The warning comes 6 weeks after the IAG share price tumbled 7% on news that damage from severe weather events in October had cost the company more than it had allocated for natural perils. As a result, it raised its expected natural perils claims cost for financial year 2022 to around $1 billion.
Right now, the company's stock is trading for 8% less than it was at the start of 2021.
