Aspen Insurance Holdings Limited last night reported a net loss for the quarter of $43 million, or 62 cents per share due to the impact of third quarter weather.

This compares to net income of $32.5 million or 57 cents per share for the year ago third quarter. The Bermuda-based company?s net income for the nine months ended September 30 was $122.9 million compared to $97.6 million for the same period in 2003.

Chris O?Kane, chief executive officer, said in an earnings statement last night: ?Clearly the quarter was dominated by the hurricane and typhoon events which impacted earnings by $145 million.

?Inclusive of losses, our year to date combined ratio was 87 percent, and our annualised operating return on average equity was 12 percent. We anticipate that these storms will have a significant positive effect on the market for wind exposed property business in the US, and further we believe that they will have a stabilising effect on the pricing of property reinsurance contracts where windstorm is not the dominant peril. Accordingly, we expect to start seeing the benefits in our 2005 results as earnings from the January 1, 2005 renewals emerge.

?All in all, it is reassuring that the other segments of our business which are not subject to storm losses continue to perform in line with plan, demonstrating the robustness of our business model of building a diversified Specialty Insurance and Reinsurance business,? he said.

Gross premiums written were $349.4 million for the third quarter of 2004 compared to $331.8 in the year ago quarter. Shareholders? equity increased from $1,298.7 million at December 31, 2003 to $1,417.7 million at September 30, 2004.