A.M. Best Places Ratings of Sirius America Insurance Company 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 the issuer credit rating (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 Sirius America Insurance Company (Sirius America) (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 , NY), a subsidiary of the White Mountains Insurance Group White Mountains Insurance Group is a holding company with business interests in property and casualty insurance, and reinsurance. The group owns the direct marketing insurer Esurance. External links
See: New York Stock Exchange : WTM WTM World Travel Market (London) WTM World Tamil Movement WTM What's the Matter? WTM Windows Task Manager WTM Web, Trattamenti e Materiali (Italian) WTM Winner Takes Most WTM Wind Tunnel Model ), under review with negative implications. This rating action follows today's announcement by Lightyear Capital, a private equity firm, that it has signed an agreement to acquire a majority equity stake in Sirius America from White Mountains. As part of the transaction, White Mountains will maintain a significant equity investment in the company. The rating will remain under review pending regulatory approval, the close of the transaction and further discussions with management concerning its strategic plan. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2006. The negative implications reflect A.M. Best's expectation that Sirius America's FSR and ICR will be downgraded to A- (Excellent) and "a-", respectively, upon the close of the transaction. The A- (Excellent) rating reflects A.M. Best's opinion as to the current stand-alone financial strength of Sirius America, excluding any rating enhancement obtained from White Mountains. For Best's Ratings, an overview of the rating process and rating methodologies, please visit www.ambest.com/ratings. A.M. Best Co., established in 1899, is the world's oldest and most authoritative insurance rating and information source. For more information, visit A.M. Best's Web site at www.ambest.com. |
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