A.M. Best Affirms Ratings of Liberty Mutual Group, Inc., Its Subsidiaries and Liberty Life Assurance Company of Boston.OLDWICK, N.J. -- A.M. Best Co. has affirmed af·firm v. af·firmed, af·firm·ing, af·firms v.tr. 1. To declare positively or firmly; maintain to be true. 2. To support or uphold the validity of; confirm. v.intr. the financial strength ratings (FSR (Free System Resource) In Windows 3.x, the amount of unused memory in various 64K blocks reserved for managing current applications. Every open window takes some space in this area. See Windows memory limitation. ) of A (Excellent) and issuer credit ratings (ICR (Intelligent Character Recognition or Image Character Recognition) The machine recognition of hand-printed characters as well as machine printing that is difficult to recognize. ) of "a" of Liberty Mutual Insurance Companies (Liberty Mutual) and Liberty Insurance Holdings (LIH LiH Lithium Hydride LIH Lihir (Summer Institute of Linguistics language code) LIH Landscape Information Hub LIH Logical Interface Handle (RSVP Message Structure C-Type Fields) LIH Linux India Help ) (Keene, NH) and their members, which are all subsidiaries of Liberty Mutual Group, Inc. (LMGI). LMGI recently acquired the former operating subsidiaries An operating subsidiary is a business term frequently used within the United States railroad industry. In the case of a railroad, it refers to a company that is a subsidiary but operates with its own identity and rolling stock. of Ohio Casualty Corporation (Fairfield, OH), which are now members of the LIH pool, and as such, A.M. Best has affirmed their FSR of A (Excellent) and ICRs of "a". The LIH pool ratings also have been assigned to Ohio Casualty of New Jersey, Inc. (New Jersey). In addition, A.M. Best has affirmed the FSR of A (Excellent) and the ICR of "a" of Liberty Life Assurance Company of Boston (Liberty Life) (Dover, NH). Additionally, A.M. Best has affirmed the ICRs of "bbb" and the debt ratings of LMGI and Ohio Casualty Corporation. Concurrently, A.M. Best has assigned a debt rating of "bbb" to LMGI's $2.45 million senior unsecured notes, due 2028 and affirmed the ICR of "bbb" of Liberty Mutual Holding Company Inc. The outlook for all ratings is stable. All companies are located in Boston, MA, except where specified. (See link below for a detailed listing of the ratings.) These ratings reflect Liberty Mutual's strong global franchise, excellent capitalization capitalization n. 1) the act of counting anticipated earnings and expenses as capital assets (property, equipment, fixtures) for accounting purposes. 2) the amount of anticipated net earnings which hypothetically can be used for conversion into capital assets. , successful risk mitigation and ongoing diversification, both domestically and globally. Liberty Mutual is the nation's fifth-largest property/casualty insurer based on direct premiums written and operates four sizeable business units: Personal Markets, Commercial Markets, Agency Markets and International. The group's diversified franchise benefits from its well regarded service reputation, strong client relationships and effective, low-cost distribution network. Personal lines business continues to rank high among Liberty Mutual's top performing underwriting Underwriting 1. The process by which investment bankers raise investment capital from investors on behalf of corporations and governments that are issuing securities (both equity and debt). 2. The process of issuing insurance policies. segments, with new markets focused on countries with an emerging middle class. Liberty Mutual's extensive unbundled service capabilities, risk management services and strategic alliances with managed care networks provide a significant competitive advantage and a superior market profile. Liberty Mutual's policyholder Policyholder An individual who owns an insurance policy. surplus experienced strong growth over the last five years, driven by solid operating income Operating Income The profit realized from a business' own operations. Notes: This would not include income from things such as investments in other firms. Also referred to as operating profit or recurring profit. derived from improved underwriting performance, realized gains Realized Gain A gain resulting from selling an asset at a price higher than the original purchase price. Notes: There may be tax consequences for a realized profit. and capital contributions related to various debt offerings by LMGI. Given Liberty Mutual's objective to secure proper pricing through cycle management while achieving additional profitable diversification, A.M. Best believes profitability will remain solid and overall capitalization will more than support the ratings going forward. Although A.M. Best's primary concern has been the potential for additional adverse loss reserve development and the resulting earnings drag associated with this development, this concern has diminished somewhat in recent calendar years with the improvement in accident year development, combined with declining levels of adverse loss reserve development. Notwithstanding these reserve charges, while the group's pre-tax operating profitability has improved with underwriting performance in recent years, return measures continue to trail its peer composite. The affirmation of the ratings of Liberty Life recognizes its established market profile strong risk-adjusted capital position and improved statutory operating results. Furthermore, the ratings acknowledge LMGI's explicit capital support and its commitment to maintain favorable fa·vor·a·ble adj. 1. Advantageous; helpful: favorable winds. 2. Encouraging; propitious: a favorable diagnosis. 3. capital levels at Liberty Life. For a complete listing of Liberty Mutual Group, Inc.'s FSRs, ICRs and debt ratings, please visit www.ambest.com/press/030505libertymutual.pdf. Founded in 1899, A.M. Best Company is a global full-service credit rating organization dedicated to serving the financial and health care service industries, including insurance companies, banks, hospitals and health care system providers. For more information, visit www.ambest.com. |
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