Lloyd's insurer expects $200m losses from Gustav and Ike.
Catlin has reported 5% growth in gross written premiums written for nine months ended September 30, 2008.
The Lloyd's insurer also posted a 5% decline in average weighted premium rates.
Catlin said gross premium written for the nine-month period increased to $2.858bn from $2.735bn in tghe same period last year. Net premiums written totaled $2.134 bn, up from $2.039bn last year.
The groups total investment return for nine months was a -0.9%, compared to return of 3.2% last year.
Gross written premiums in Catlin's UK business fell 6% from $2,095m to $1,978m in the nine-month period.
In a statement Catlin said: "The decrease in London/UK-originating business was anticipated by the group prior to the start of 2008 and reflects the challenging market during the first nine months of the year. Catlin Bermuda continued to show significant premium growth. The rate of growth from Catlin US accelerated during the third quarter as was anticipated. Catlin's international offices, particularly the European offices, continued to report excellent premium growth. The growth across these platforms and offices reaffirms our strategy to diversify our risk portfolio both geographically and by class of business."
The group also said it expects no change to its estimated losses from Hurricanes Gustav and Ike. "On 17 October 2008 the group announced that losses arising from Hurricanes Ike and Gustav were estimated at approximately US$200 million, net of reinsurance protections and reinstatement premiums. There has been no change to this estimate, which is based on the assumption that market-wide losses from Hurricane Ike will amount to approximately US$15 billion."
Stephen Catlin, chief executive of Catlin Group, said: "2008 has proven to be an extremely challenging year. However, these challenges - including Hurricane Ike and the turmoil in the financial markets - together with events affecting some of our major competitors have removed significant amounts of capital from the marketplace and are causing the market to turn.
"Rates for some types of reinsurance are already rising as a result, and we expect significantly improved conditions for most classes of reinsurance and some classes of insurance by year-end renewals. We believe rates for many other classes of insurance will begin to rise later in 2009.
"Catlin's business plan for 2009 is based on increasing premium rates and volumes across the Group's underwriting platforms and international offices. Catlin foresees good underwriting results in 2009 and beyond."
