NEW YORK (Bloomberg) ? Everest Re Group Ltd. yesterday raised its loss estimate from Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma to $1.2 billion from $1 billion and said its full-year loss would be higher-than-expected.

Everest Re previously forecast $1 billion in storm costs, before taxes, the company said in a statement yesterday.

Katrina, expected to be the most costly US disaster ever, lashed the Gulf Coast in August, dislodging oil rigs and breaking levees to flood 80 percent of New Orleans. Reinsurance prices on properties damaged by last year?s hurricanes rose 30 percent to 100 percent, insurance broker Willis Group Holdings Ltd. said in a January 4 report.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial project a fourth-quarter loss of 34 cents per share, and a 2005 loss of $2.10 per share. The company will report earnings on January 30.

In November, Everest projected a ?modest after-tax operating loss? for the year but offered no specific figures.

The estimated after-tax costs are $395 million in the fourth quarter and $962 million for the year, Everest Re said. The company will release quarterly and full-year results on January 30.

Shares of Everest Re closed at $101.66 on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday.