RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. anticipates that claims from last month's Chile earthquake and European windstorm will be "material" - but the Bermuda reinsurer still expects to make a first-quarter profit.

Bermuda rival Platinum Underwriters last night announced an $85 million estimate for claims arising from the earthquake, as well as winter storms in the US, a European windstorm and a massive hailstorm in Melbourne, Australia.

In a statement released yesterday, RenRe did not put a number on its own expected losses from the two events but said that industry loss estimates ranged from $2 billion to $10 billion for the earthquake and one billion euros to 3 billion euros for the storm.

RenRe said "meaningful uncertainty remains regarding these industry loss estimates".

The earthquake, which had a magnitude of 8.8 on the Richter Scale, struck central Chile on February 27 and caused widespread devastation.

On the same day, the powerful windstorm, named Xynthia, caused flood and wind damage in Portugal, western and northern Spain, western France, and also parts of the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium.

"It is difficult at this time to provide an accurate estimate of the financial impact of these events on the company, as a result of the preliminary nature of the information available, inadequacies in the data provided thus far by industry participants, the magnitude and recent occurrence of the events, the expected lengthy claims development period, and other factors," RenRe said in a statement.

Platinum said that substantially all of the estimated catastrophe losses related to excess of loss reinsurance and retrocessional treaties exposed to the Chile earthquake.

Platinum said its preliminary loss estimate was based on industry loss estimates, portfolio modelling and a review of individual contracts.

The company stressed there was still considerable uncertainty over what the actual losses in Chile would turn out to be.

PartnerRe said earlier this week that it expects earthquake losses of between $220 million and $32 million, while Everest Re's estimate was around $225 million.

Meanwhile, AM Best affirmed RenRe's financial strength rating of A+ (superior), with a stable outlook.

Best said the ratings reflected RenRe's superior level of risk-based capitalisation and historically excellent underwriting track record.

Best said RenRe has "outstanding risk management techniques and active capital management".

The company maintains its superior market reputation as a leader in state-of-the-art property catastrophe modelling and risk optimisation, which has attracted capital from outside companies to form several successful joint ventures including DaVinci and Top Layer Reinsurance Ltd., Best added.