Reinsurance company Swiss Re said on Thursday that claims from wildfires in Los Angeles would be less than $700 million and would impact its first quarter results.

Munich Re estimates that devastating wildfires that struck southern California in January will result in $1.26 billion in claims for the company, it said as it reported fourth-quarter results.

German reinsurance giant Munich Re said Wednesday that last month's huge wildfires in Los Angeles had been the costliest "in the history of the insurance industry". Nonetheless, the figure would represent "the most substantial wildfire losses in the history of the insurance industry",

By Tom Sims and Alexander Hübner FRANKFURT - Germany's Munich Re expects about 1.2 billion euros ($1.26 billion) in claims resulting from the Los Angeles wildfires, it said on Wednesday, representing the biggest loss reported so far by a single European reinsurer for the January catastrophe.