Sue Not Me......

Tsunami - Not So Bad, After All

For business, maybe......

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Munich Re, the world's largest reinsurer, expects its damage claims due to the tsunamis that hit Asia on Sunday to be less than 100 million euros ($136 million), it said on Tuesday.

It said it did not expect claims related to the world's strongest earthquake in 40 years to change its forecast of 2004 profits of between 1.8 billion and 2 billion euros.

While Munich Re estimates the total damage caused by tsunami at more than 10 billion euros, the reinsurer said the losses to the insurance industry would be limited.

"The insurance penetration is relatively low, and the insured property losses are likely to be limited due to the sparse concentrations of values," Munich Re said.

Translation: Most of the 60,000, 75,000 100,000 dead poor people didn't have insurance! Stockholders rejoice, indeed.