NEW YORK (Reuters) — Billionaire turnaround specialist Wilbur Ross said on Wednesday he is about to make a $100 million investment in the reinsurance industry, his latest vote of confidence in the sector. Ross has already put more than $125 million into reinsurers, who provide backup coverage to home, car and commercial carriers in the event of major catastrophes.

He said that “before the end of the year” he plans to boost his investment in the sector, which has been bolstered by an absence of hurricane-related losses this year.

“While there will probably be greater catastrophes going forward, the premiums have gone up enough to provide an adequate return,” he told Reuters in an interview at the China Institute in America.

In 2005, Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma devastated the Gulf Coast, costing insurers $68 billion in claims. Reinsurers, often based in Bermuda because of favourable tax rules, paid more than $20 billion of that figure, and two reinsurers went out of business.

Since then new money has come in to replace those losses, much of it from private equity firms such as Thomas H. Lee Partners L.P., Citadel Investment Group, Greenlight Capital Inc. and Ross, according to data compiled by Willis Group Holdings Ltd.

Ross’ New York-based company, W.L. Ross & Co. LLC, previously invested about $25 million in Blue Ocean, a wholly owned subsidiary of Montpelier Re Holdings Ltd.

In May, Ross injected $100 million into Montpelier itself, taking a seven percent stake. Ross also joined the board of Montpelier, among the hardest hit of the Bermuda reinsurers.

Montpelier lost almost 60 percent of its value between July 2005 and the time Ross, who is known for turning around troubled companies, bought his stake. It has since risen about 25 percent.

Ross said he expected to do a “more complicated deal for over $100 million” but declined to provide further details.

“We feel good about the January 2007 renewal period (when most insurers renew their contracts),” Ross said.

“They will be similar to July renewals, when a lot of companies couldn’t even find an insurer.”

Those who did often paid double the previous year’s price, or more, according to property insurers.

In this year’s third quarter, property and casualty insurers’ earnings soared as a mild hurricane season led to a plunge in US catastrophic losses.

Ross doesn’t expect that to continue, but said the increased premiums that reinsurers will get in eight or nine out of ten years “will more than justify the losses in the other two.”