Bermuda-based re/insurer Catlin said yesterday that the sheer size of Hurricane Sandy and the many different types of claims it has created meant the likely losses from the storm remain difficult to assess.The company compared the US “superstorm” to the New Zealand earthquake, Japanese earthquake and tsunami, and Thai floods in 2011, saying that “existing catastrophe models are unlikely to predict the quantum of insured damage with a high degree of certainty”.The losses to Catlin are expected to be clearer when the group reports its 2012 full-year results.“Catlin wishes to express its sympathy to the victims of Hurricane Sandy,” Catlin’s CEO Stephen Catlin said. “The storm has caused nearly 200 deaths in the Caribbean and the United States and has caused great suffering for millions of others who are homeless, have been without electricity, natural gas or water, or have faced transportation or other lifestyle hardships.“Thankfully, none of our US employees or their family members were killed or injured by the storm. However, our New York office will be closed for several more weeks, and many of our employees’ homes were without power for more than a week after the storm made landfall.”The firm saw gross premiums rise by 11 percent in the first nine months of the year as prices went up and its took on new business.However, this rise was slightly flattered by changes in its accounting methods in the US, with like-for-like sales up eight percent.The firm said its London hub continued to respond to favourable underwriting opportunities as they arose, posting an eight percent rise in the period to the end of September.Catlin Bermuda, on the other hand, saw gross premiums fall six percent in the first half of the year. The company said this decline “reflected the lack of reinstatement premiums in 2012, which at September 30 had been a catastrophe-free year”. The decrease also reflected the decision earlier in the year not to renew certain property reinsurance contracts whose rate levels did not meet expectations.Catlin saw a 27 percent increase in gross premiums written by its US arm, reflecting the impact of the accounting change relating to quota share reinsurance treaties written by the division.Excluding the impact of the accounting change, gross premiums written by the US hub grew by 12 percent, due to rate increases and new business written, particularly in energy, casualty and reinsurance classes.The company saw strong growth across all its product groups except aerospace, where gross premiums fell by one percent.It put this down to continued rate pressure for airline business as well as delays in the number of satellite launches during the period.Rates continued to increase for many classes of business, particularly catastrophe-exposed business.