ZURICH (Bloomberg) — Swiss Reinsurance Co., the world's largest reinsurer, may say profit slipped in the third quarter as prices for property and casualty reinsurance fell.

The Zurich-based company may say when it releases its results today that net income fell 27 percent to 1.13 billion Swiss francs ($980 million) from 1.55 billion francs a year earlier, according to the median of nine analysts' forecasts surveyed by telephone and e-mail. Premiums probably fell 1.1 percent to 8.02 billion francs, the survey showed.

Swiss Re said in September it will reduce the amount of capital used for natural catastrophe coverage in the US should prices fall too low, after the region was spared a major hurricane for two years in a row.

Swiss Re will see "moderate price softening" at its property and casualty unit, analysts Heinrich Wiemer and Viktor Dammann at Bank Vontobel in Zurich wrote in a note to investors.

Falling prices in the US pushed rates during the July non- life renewals two percent lower, with overall renewals decreasing 9 percent, Swiss Re said in August. The reinsurer, which helps insurers such as Allianz SE shoulder risks, forecast industrywide claims for storms, floods and earthquakes to rise to $35 billion this year from $12 billion in 2006.

Profit may also be hurt by financial market swings. Swiss Re had investments of about 500 million francs related to the U.S. subprime mortgage market at the end of the first half, out of a total 190 billion francs in invested assets. It had no money at risk in leveraged finance.

"Revenues in financial services may have seen some pressure" as a result of turmoil in financial markets, wrote Tim Dawson, an analyst with Helvea in Geneva in a research note last week.

Swiss Re fell 2.4 francs, or 2.3 percent, to 101.6 francs by 3:27 p.m. in Zurich. The shares have lost 1.9 percent this year, compared with a 1.8 percent drop in Munich Re. Both are outpacing the 4.8 percent decline in the 28-member Bloomberg Europe 500 Insurance Index.

To use capital not needed for new contracts, Swiss Re since 1998 bought 40 funds that no longer write new business through its Admin Re unit, including the UK life-insurance unit of General Electric Co. for £465 million ($967 million) in October, 2006.