Shares of some Bermuda reinsurance companies slipped yesterday as a catastrophe modelling company predicted insured losses could be as high as $10 billion from the storm which caused widespread damage in Europe last week.

RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. was the biggest Bermuda faller, dipping 5.25 percent, while Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd. lost 3.4 percent and PartnerRe 1.7 percent by close of trading yesterday.

But Bradley Kading, president and executive director of the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers (ABIR), said the local industry had been well prepared for the disaster.

?The companies are in very good shape to absorb a loss of this size ,? Mr. Kading said. ?The reinsurers have been talking about the need for Europe to understand they are likely to be exposed to more frequent storms. And this is an example of what we predicted.?

Winter storm Kyrill struck Europe on January 18 with hurricane-force winds that lasted two days, causing damage, power disruptions and flooding throughout Britain, France, the Netherlands and Germany.

Catastrophe risk modelling company AIR Worldwide Corp. estimated insured losses from winter storm Kyrill will be between $5.2 billion to $10.4 billion.

?Winter storm Kyrill is the worst storm to hit Europe in eight years,? said Dr. Peter Dailey, director of atmospheric science at AIR Worldwide in a statement.

Mr. Kading suggested that the end result of the storm could be beneficial for the Bermuda market, as it might help the reinsurers? message get through ? that coverage in Europe has not been keeping up with rising property values.

?They had storms like this in Europe in the 1990s and it?s not surprising that they?re back,? Mr. Kading said. ?And as values of properties have increased, so has the amount of exposure. But that hasn?t been reflected in increasing reinsurance coverage.

?In fact this storm may serve as a wake-up call to have exposures like this properly reinsured. In that sense, this could be good for the market.?

The Reuters agency quoted Rob Haines, an insurance analyst with CreditSights, as saying: ?The damage caused by this storm was outside of the norm of catastrophe models that they have modelled for.?

But Morningstar reinsurance analyst Bill Bergman was less concerned. ?I would not be worried about one storm,? he told Reuters.