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A.M. Best Places Ratings of Fidelity National Financial, Inc. and Its Title Insurance Subsidiaries Under Review With Negative 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 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 Fidelity National Financial Group (Fidelity) and its eight title insurance members under review with negative implications. In addition, A.M. Best has placed the ICR of "bbb" of Fidelity National Financial, Inc. (FNF FNF Fidelity National Financial
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) (headquartered in Jacksonville, FL) (NYSE NYSE

See: New York Stock Exchange
: FNF) under review with negative implications. (Please see below for a detailed listing of the companies and ratings.)

Previously, the ratings were removed from under review following the announcement of the termination of Fidelity's proposed merger agreement with LandAmerica Financial Group LandAmerica Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE: LFG) is the third largest title insurance group in the US. It was incorporated in 1991 and is headquartered in Glen Allen, Virginia. , Inc. (LandAmerica) (Virginia) the third-largest national writer of title insurance in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. , following a two week due diligence Research; analysis; your homework. This term has caught on in all industries, because it sounds so "wired." Who would want to do analysis or research when they can do due diligence. See wired.  period, which expired on November 21, 2008. (Please see A.M. Best's press release dated November 25, 2008.)

The ratings of FNF and Fidelity have been placed under review as A.M. Best assesses the implications of Fidelity's newly announced plans, which were not previously disclosed to A.M. Best, concerning acquiring four insurance underwriting companies of LandAmerica, following the announcement of LandAmerica's filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The stock purchase agreement calls for Fidelity's leading title insurance subsidiaries to acquire four LandAmerica insurance underwriters. Specifically, Chicago Title Insurance Company (Omaha, NE) will acquire Commonwealth Land Title Insurance Company and Commonwealth Land Title of New Jersey, while Fidelity National Title Insurance Company (Santa Barbara Santa Barbara (săn'tə bär`brə, –bərə), city (1990 pop. 85,571), seat of Santa Barbara co., S Calif., on the Pacific Ocean; inc. 1850. , CA) will acquire Lawyers Title Insurance Corporation and United Capital Title. The total purchase price will be approximately $300 million. The proposed acquisitions are expected to result in a significant increase in underwriting leverage for Fidelity, which may result in adversely impacting its financial strength and risk-adjusted capitalization. Additionally, the acquisition is expected to carry execution risks of integrating two large insurance organizations. The proposed transaction, which will result in the largest title insurance organization in the United States, will be subject to regulatory and judicial approvals including federal anti-trust review, final approved orders by the Chapter 11 court, and approvals from all applicable state insurance regulators.

A.M. Best expects to resolve the under review status of the ratings following the closing of the transaction which is expected to occur by year-end 2008, along with obtaining further information from management.

The FSR of A (Excellent) and ICRs of "a" have been placed under review with negative implications for Fidelity National Financial Group and its following members:

* Alamo Alamo

Eighteenth-century mission in San Antonio, Texas, site of a historic siege of a small group of Texans by a Mexican army (1836) during the Texas war for independence from Mexico.
 Title Insurance

* Chicago Title Insurance Company of Oregon

* Chicago Title Insurance Company

* Fidelity National Title Insurance Company

* National Title Insurance of New York New York, state, United States
New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of
, Inc.

* Security Union Title Insurance Company

* Ticor Title Insurance Company of Florida

* Ticor Title Insurance Company

The ICR of "bbb" has been placed under review with negative implications for Fidelity National Financial, Inc.

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 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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Publication:Business Wire
Date:Dec 5, 2008
Words:522
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