LONDON (Reuters) ? Some reinsurers may go out of business if another string of major hurricanes this year leaves the industry nursing another huge claims bill as in 2005, Swiss Re?s chief executive said yesterday.

?If we have an unlucky year, it could have dire consequences for smaller reinsurers,? CEO Jacques Aigrain said at an industry meeting in London.

?Their desperate attempts in the January renewals to diversify (the risks they write to limit the financial hit from catastrophes) would have no effect on that,? said Aigrain, whose company is the world?s second largest reinsurer.

Last year?s series of major storms, which buffeted the American coast, produced the costliest year on record for the insurance industry.

Swiss Re, which announced a 41 percent slump in annual profit on Thursday due to huge storm claims, is expecting that the 2006 hurricane season, like last year, will see a higher-than-normal number of severe storms, Aigrain said.

But if the industry escapes this year relatively unscathed by hurricanes it could prosper, he said. ?We could have a lucky year and we could all make money like bandits.

?But we would all know that it was sheer luck.?

When asked about future consolidation in the industry, Aigrain said some of the smaller Bermudian insurers ?had no right to exist .... They have no franchise and no resilience and when the wind blows they tend to go with the wind.

?They would have to consolidate among themselves, because no one else would have any interest in acquiring them,? he added.

Aigrain is navigating his company through the $7.6 billion acquisition of General Electric?s reinsurance businesses in a deal that would make it the world?s largest reinsurer.

He said he did not know whether the deal would spark an M&A spree in the sector.

But he said insurers in general were getting larger, partly through acquisitions, and reinsurers, who take risks too large or volatile for insurers to keep, may need to grow to meet their clients? changing demands.