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Exclusive | Ping An liable for 23 per cent of Kimpton Hotel’s US$335 million fire damage as reinsurance cuts its risk
- Ping An Property & Casualty said it has reinsurance cover that cuts its exposure to claims arising from the Kimpton Hotel fire
- The claim could run from HK$200 million to HK$500 million, one of the largest of its kind in Hong Kong, according to an industry leader
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A unit of China’s Ping An Group has confirmed it is the insurer providing cover for the under-construction Kimpton Hotel in Hong Kong that was engulfed by a fire last week.
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Replying to an inquiry from the Post, Ping An Property & Casualty said it had reinsurance arrangements in place that reduce its exposure to only about a quarter of what is expected to be one of the biggest property-related damage claims the city has ever seen.
The Kimpton Hotel is insured for a total of HK$2.63 billion (US$335.3 million), Ping An said. That includes HK$1.82 billion of “contractors’ all risks” insurance and HK$800 million of third party liability cover.
“The company has attached great importance to the incident and immediately set up a special working group to launch any emergency services and claim follow-ups,” a spokesman for Ping An P&C said.
The huge blaze started at around 11pm last Thursday night and took firefighters nine hours to extinguish. It was upgraded to a No 4 alarm fire on the city’s one-to-five scale of seriousness just before 2am on Friday.
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“Ping An P&C has made reinsurance arrangements for the insured building amount,” the spokesman said. Reinsurance is when an insurance company shares its premium income with reinsurance companies which will then also share the payouts when claims arise.
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