Best’s News & Research Service - January 12, 2015 03:39 PM (EST)
A.M. Best Revises Issuer Credit Rating Outlook to Stable for American Reliable Insurance Company; Affirms Ratings
Oldwick //BestWire// - A.M. Best has revised the outlook to stable from positive and affirmed the issuer credit rating (ICR) of "a" for American Reliable Insurance Company (American Reliable) (Scottsdale, AZ), upon its acquisition by Global Indemnity Group, Inc. (Global Indemnity), a subsidiary of Global Indemnity plc (Ireland) [NASDAQ:GBLI]. A.M. Best also has affirmed the financial strength rating (FSR) of A (Excellent). The outlook for the FSR of American Reliable remains stable. Management states that American Reliable will become a participant of the existing pooling agreement among Global Indemnity's U.S. subsidiaries, of which each currently has an FSR of A (Excellent) and an ICR of "a" with a stable outlook. For this reason, A.M. Best revised the outlook to stable from positive.
Under terms of the transaction, which closed Jan. 1, 2015, Global Indemnity's U.S. operations have assumed American Reliable's specialty personal lines and agricultural property/casualty insurance businesses, complementing its commercial and equine agricultural lines with minimal distributional overlap. A.M. Best expects that Global Indemnity's assimilation of the acquired American Reliable business into its U.S. insurance operations should support the diversification of its insurance risks and enhance its profitability through the addition of underwriting expertise and claims management in complementary lines with minimal excess overhead.
Global Indemnity's insurance operations include general and specialty property/casualty and professional lines coverage, as well as commercial lines for small businesses across the United States. American Reliable writes personal lines from Scottsdale, AZ, and agriculture-related lines from Omaha, NE, with minimal corporate infrastructure. Its direct parent and foreign affiliate, Global Indemnity Reinsurance Company Ltd. (Hamilton, Bermuda) provides reinsurance focused on catastrophe-oriented placements.
The methodology used in determining these ratings is Best's Credit Rating Methodology, which provides a comprehensive explanation of A.M. Best's rating process and contains the different rating criteria employed in the rating process. Best's Credit Rating Methodology can be found at www.ambest.com/ratings/methodology.
Key insurance criteria reports utilized:
- Rating Members of Insurance Groups
- Risk Management and the Rating Process for Insurance Companies
- Understanding BCAR for Property/Casualty Insurers
This press release relates to rating(s) that have been published on A.M. Best's website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please visit A.M. Best's Ratings & Criteria Center.
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