A.M. Best Places Ratings of Bristol West Insurance Group under Review with Positive Implications.OLDWICK, N.J. -- A.M. Best Co. has placed the financial strength rating (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 the 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 Bristol West Insurance Group (Bristol West) (Davie, FL) and its members under review with positive implications. Concurrently, A.M. Best has placed the ICR of "bbb-" of Bristol West's holding company, Bristol West Holdings, Inc. (Bristol West Holdings) [NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange : BRW BRW Business Review Weekly (business magazine; Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) BRW Business Report Writer BRW Barrow, AK, USA - Barrow (Airport Code) BRW Business Requirement Worksheet ], under review with positive implications. These rating actions have been taken due to the announcement that Bristol West Holdings has agreed to be acquired by Farmers Group, Inc. (FGI FGI Free Government Information FGI Fashion Group International, Inc FGI Focus Group Interview FGI Federazione Ginnastica d'Italia (Italian Gymnastics Federation) FGI Finished Goods Inventory FGI Forget It ) (Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. , CA), a wholly owned subsidiary Wholly Owned Subsidiary A subsidiary whose parent company owns 100% of its common stock. Notes: In other words, the parent company owns the company outright and there are no minority owners. of Zurich Financial Services Zurich Financial Services Group is a major financial services group based in Zurich, Switzerland. Global operations North America The US consumer market is served primarily by Farmers Insurance Group the third largest personal lines property & casualty insurance Group. (Zurich) (Zurich, Switzerland). The transaction is valued at $712 million, and at December 31, 2006, Bristol West's policyholders' surplus was approximately $350 million. Under the terms of the agreement, the holders of Bristol West Holdings common stock will receive $22.50 per share in cash for their shares. FGI is the attorney-in-fact for the lead reciprocal exchange within the Farmers Insurance Group (Farmers) and is a U.S. subsidiary of Zurich. The members of Farmers have an FSR of A (Excellent) and ICRs of "a", and at December 31, 2006, the group's policyholders' surplus was over $5 billion. These ratings apply to the lead company, Farmers Insurance Exchange (California), and its 17 affiliated members. Farmers is a leading personal lines insurer in the United States, with a particularly strong market position in the West and Southwest. Bristol West provides private passenger automobile liability and physical damage insurance exclusively through independent agents and brokers in 22 states. The ratings of Bristol West will remain under review pending shareholder and regulatory approval and further discussions with management regarding Bristol West's integration into FGI. Bristol West Preferred Insurance Company (Michigan) is included in this sale. The FSR of A- (Excellent) and the ICRs of "a-" have been placed under review with positive implications for Bristol West Insurance Group and its following members: * Bristol West Casualty Insurance Company * Bristol West Insurance Company * Coast National Insurance Company * Security National Insurance Company The ICR of "bbb-" for Bristol West Holdings, Inc. has been placed under review with positive implications. For Best's Ratings, an overview of the rating process and rating methodologies, please visit www.ambest.com/ratings. Founded in 1899, A.M. Best Company is a full-service credit rating organization dedicated to serving the financial services industries, including the banking and insurance sectors. For more information, visit www.ambest.com. |
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