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Macquarie rates as Outperform (1) - Target $3.53 (was $2.94).

Suncorp also took the opportunity to update the market on the state of natural hazard claims. Over the nine months to 31 March the general insurance division took a hit with claims reaching $537 million against an allowance of $520 million. This was largely due to the damage caused by ex-Tropical Cyclone Oswald which is currently estimated at a staggering $250 million in claims to Suncorp. The weather events certainly haven’t damaged the share price growth of the domestic insurers, with market-beating returns from the domestic-focussed insurers over the past 12 months. Suncorp, Insurance Australia Group (ASX: IAG) and AMP (ASX: AMP) have all significantly outperformed the S&P/ASX 200 Index (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) as displayed in the chart below. Meanwhile the share prices of New Zealand based insurer Tower (ASX: TWR) and global insurer QBE Insurance (ASX: QBE) have both underperformed.

The risk of people leaving the system may be why private health insurer, NIB Holdings (ASX: NHF) has today agreed to buy Tower Ltd’s (ASX: TWR) New Zealand health insurance business for around $80 million. NIB have said that the New Zealand market was attractive as there “was almost no regulation in the market.” The company also said that budget constraints in New Zealand mean the government knows there must be more future private funding of healthcare.