The attacks in the United States: who and how many have lost in this?

Losses incurred by the United States and the world economy as a result of terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, it is difficult to estimate in numbers. A direct or indirect losses and deteriorating financial performance due to the terrorist attacks announced the company of different, unrelated directly, spheres of activity - such as Ford, General Electric, Citigroup, American Express and many others.

There are other losses
In addition to human lives billion of losses from direct damage, the fall of stock indices, there are other losses, the first time not so striking. Against the backdrop of emerging recession and the events of 11 September following their retaliatory strikes on Afghanistan in the long run may become the starting point for moving the U.S. economy to an entirely new type.

In case of a global war with the Western world terrorism will inevitably change the business environment and within the United States. Already markedly expanded the functions and powers of American law enforcement, a new structure - the Board of Homeland Security, which coordinates the work of secret services in the fight against terrorism.

The total penetration of the state in various spheres of life of Americans threatened with the loss of the U.S. economy may be the main competitive advantages - its openness to the outside world.

However, the above applies, rather, to theoretical speculations. In the meantime, better to analyze the interests of industries were affected most directly.

Among the victims of the terrorist attacks of most analysts consider, first of all, companies operating in the sectors of insurance and aviation.

Insurance
On the day of 17 September, when they were resumed trading on the American stock market, the insurance index Standard & Poor's fell 4.8%, down to 14-month minimum. According to expert estimates, the total insurance payments can range from $ 15 to $ 40 billion.

Thus, the destruction of the World Trade Center will be for insurance companies the most expensive insurance event in history. Prior to this, the most grandiose in scale was the notorious Hurricane Andrew, which swept over the United States in 1992. Then the insurance companies paid a total of $ 20 billion.

The day after the explosions Book American International Group (AIG), the largest market capitalization of the insurance company, announced that the preliminary estimate of losses from terrorist attacks in the United States may reach $ 500 million, however, AIG - the largest insurance company in the world with assets exceeding $ 400 billion Our business is well diversified both by type of insurance, as well as geographically. The losses incurred by the company as a result of the tragedy will not affect its financial stability ", - assured the investors, chairman of AIG, Maurice Greenberg (Maurice Greenberg). He also warned that, despite the fact that the company accounts for only a small proportion of the total insurance proceeds related directly to the destruction of VTTS, AIG has obligations to many insurance companies under contracts of reinsurance, and therefore the final payment amount may grow substantially later. Indeed, less than a month in the AIG had been forced to revise their predictions about the value of insurance payments from $ 500 million to $ 800 million.

September 14 at AIG, it was decided to repurchase 40 million shares repurchase program in addition to 10 million shares, approved in early September. American companies often resort to such a reception, where the wish to support the falling rate of its shares. Shares in AIG a week from 17 to 21 September fell by 9.7% (Fig. 1), but soon they were able to not only play back, but also markedly podrasti in price (over the next three weeks, an increase of almost 25%), so the Board of Directors the company canceled its initial decision to expand the program of buy-back shares.


At the end of October had been declared the results of the company in III quarter. Compared with the previous year, revenues increased by 12.9% to $ 15.7 billion for the major losses suffered by the terrorist attacks as a result, net profit declined by 80.8% to $ 326.8 million, or 12 cents per share. A year earlier, AIG received a profit of $ 1.7 billion, or $ 0.65 per share.

Excluding losses from terrorist attacks and the costs associated with restructuring and the acquisition in the III quarter of the insurance company American General for $ 23 billion, AIG profit was $ 1.92 billion, or $ 0.72 per share, exceeding the corresponding figure in 2000 to 14.1%.

At a press conference on the results of III quarter, Maurice Greenberg, said that terrorist attacks have had a tremendous impact on the insurance sector. Significantly increased demand for property insurance and insurance against accidents, both by business and individuals. In his view, in the near future should expect rising prices for insurance services, as well as the capacity of the insurance market is limited, and he may be unable to meet the increased demand for high quality insurance services.

Another leader of the American insurance market, the company Berkshire Hathaway, owned by the famous billionaire financier Warren Baffettu (Warren Buffett), stated that the amount of damages caused by her actions of terrorists will be about $ 2.2 billion, or 3-5% of the total damage, estimated by the company's specialists in the $ 44 billion long as it is the largest amount of insurance premiums per insurance company. The holding company Chubb Corp., Specializing in the provision of property insurance and accident insurance, expects that its losses from the events of 11 September will be $ 500-600 million before tax, equivalent to a net loss $ 1.85-2.25 per share. Projections for the output current fiscal year were adjusted downward to the range of $ 1.60-2.35 per share net profit.

Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Chubb O'Hara Dean (Dean R. O'Hare), in a speech before Congress, expressed confidence that the insurance sector is in good shape, and insurance companies to provide full coverage of damage from the terrorist attacks in New York York and Washington. But he warned that another disaster similar to the scale of destruction to the events of September 11 put the issue on the solvency of the industry.

Dean O'Hara believes that the burden of most of the insurance payments will fall on the major reinsurance companies, which are distributed through a large insurance risks. Thus, the two largest reinsurance companies in the world, the German Munich Re and Swiss Swiss Re, have been forced to double their original estimates of future payments under contracts of reinsurance, raising them to $ 3.2 billion