A.M. Best Affirms Ratings Of PartnerRe Ltd
A.M. Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating [FSR] of A [Excellent] and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating [Long-Term ICR] of “a+” of Partner Reinsurance Company Ltd. and its affiliates.
A.M. Best has also affirmed the Long-Term ICR of “bbb+” of PartnerRe Ltd and its existing Long-Term Issue Credit Ratings [Long-Term IR]. The outlook of these Credit Ratings [ratings] is stable. PartnerRe Ltd and PartnerRe are domiciled in Hamilton, Bermuda.
The ratings agency said, “The ratings reflect PartnerRe’s strong risk-adjusted capitalization, well diversified book of business, global business profile and earnings capacity. Also reflected in the ratings is the recent stability afforded to PartnerRe under its new owner, EXOR N.V.
“PartnerRe maintains a highly diversified book of reinsurance business across both non-life and life lines of business, as well as a balanced geographic spread of risk. A.M. Best still has some lingering concerns about PartnerRe’s focus on reinsurance due to the very challenging market conditions. However, A.M. Best believes that PartnerRe’s current focus to build out of life and health operations could provide additional diversification to offset those challenges.
“Under EXOR N.V. ownership, A.M. Best believes that PartnerRe’s financial flexibility will be maintained as it still has access to the capital markets on a stand-alone basis, as well as potentially through EXOR N.V., which is a publicly traded company in Italy.
“Additionally, PartnerRe maintains a strong risk management infrastructure that is embedded throughout the organization with clearly delineated roles and responsibilities. Such an infrastructure is needed given the level of complexity of the group’s risk profile.
“PartnerRe’s overall earnings in recent years have been impacted by several non-operating activities. The group’s consistently strong reserve releases have served as ballast for those expenses, as well as the continued challenging reinsurance market conditions.
“Rating factors that could lead to a positive outlook or rating upgrade would be successful build out of its distribution platforms, long-term consistently strong operating profitability and maintaining excellent risk-adjusted capital levels through various market conditions.
“Rating factors that could lead to a negative outlook or a downgrade include unfavorable operating results, outsized insurance or investment losses or a significant decline in risk-adjusted capital to a level that no longer supports the current ratings.”
