"Following the very heavy burden of losses already incurred in the first quarter, catastrophe losses took an extraordinarily severe toll on our third-quarter results," Hannover Re complained in a statement.

"Following on from hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the third quarter, the fourth quarter brought another severe hurricane by the name of Wilma. We anticipate a loss burden in the order of 150 million euros (175 million dollars) from this even," the company said.

"This will place a strain on the performance of the fourth quarter and will probably leave only a break-even result at year-end."

Earlier, Hannover Re had been hoping to match last year's result of 309.1 million euros.

In the nine months to September, net profit tumbled 68 percent to 61.9 million euros and operating profit, as measured by earnings before interest and tax (EBIT), slumped 84 percent to 63.8 million euros.

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