The Suncorp Group Ltd (ASX: SUN) share price is in reverse during late morning trade on Monday. This comes after the company provided an update on the recent severe weather impacting Australia's east coast.
At the time of writing, the banking and insurance company shares are 3.28% lower to $10.76 apiece.
In comparison, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is 0.39% higher at 7,025.4 points.
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What did Suncorp announce?
Investors are dragging the Suncorp share price lower today following the heavy rainfall and flooding in south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales.
According to the release, Suncorp advised it has received more than 5,000 claims across both states as of 28 February.
Of the total claims lodged, around 70% have come from south-east Queensland and the remaining 30% from New South Wales.
Suncorp stated that it has "comprehensive reinsurance arrangements in place including the main catastrophe program, dropdown aggregate protections and Aggregate excess of loss (AXL) treaty all with full limits available."
In addition, the company also has quota share arrangements in place for its Queensland home insurance portfolio.
Suncorp expects the maximum cost from this event will be approximately $75 million.
Currently, the full-year outlook for natural hazard costs is about $1.075 billion.
Suncorp CEO Steve Johnston touched on the latest developments:
Right now, safety is the number one priority as we continue to face significant and dangerous weather conditions. Many roads, homes and businesses remain flooded so we must wait until it is safe to evaluate the impact.
We are carefully monitoring the situation, and we are ready to help our customers with any resulting claims. Our mobile Customer Support Teams are on alert and ready to be deployed into severely impacted communities once waters recede.
Suncorp share price summary
Over the past 12 months, Suncorp shares have gained 8.3%, however, year to date they are down 2.7%. The company's share price reached a 52-week high of $13.26 in September, before treading lower in the following months.
Suncorp presides a market capitalisation of roughly $13.59 billion, making it the 36th largest company on the ASX.
