(Bloomberg) ? Chubb Corp., an insurer of commercial property and high-end homes, said third-quarter profit fell 32 percent on claims from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Net income declined to $246.4 million, or $1.20 a share, from $364 million, or $1.88, a year earlier, the Warren, NewJersey-based company said in a statement distributed by PRNewswire yesterday. Katrina, Rita and other catastrophes cost $568 million, before taxes.

Katrina, which battered the US Gulf Coast in August, may have been the industry?s most expensive US disaster, costing insurers an estimated $40 billion to $60 billion. On the other hand, storm losses will probably push up prices for commercial property insurance, helping future profit, said Peter Streit, an analyst at Williams Capital Group LP in New York.

?Chubb should benefit in a rising rate environment,? Streit said. He has a ?buy? rating on the stock. The company earned 89 cents a share excluding changes in the value of its investments. Jay Cohen, an analyst at Merrill Lynch & Co., had estimated 40 cents, and Banc of America Securities analyst Brian Meredith projected 12 cents.

Katrina flooded most of New Orleans and stripped parts of coastal Mississippi and Alabama bare on August 29. Almost a month later, Rita struck the Louisiana-Texas border.