Fitch Assigns 'BBB' to AmerUs Group Co.'s Senior Notes.NEW YORK & CHICAGO -- Fitch Ratings has assigned a 'BBB' rating to AmerUs Group Co.'s (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :AMH) issuance of $143.75 million senior notes due May 16, 2011. Fitch also affirmed AMH's 'BBB+' issuer default rating (IDR) and the ratings on all outstanding debt (see below for a complete listing of all ratings). The Rating Outlook is Stable. The senior notes were issued in connection with the terms required by the Income PRIDES issued May 2003. AMH will not receive any of the proceeds from the remarketing of the senior notes. Instead, the proceeds will be used to purchase U.S. Treasury securities U.S. Treasury securities Interest-bearing obligations if the U.S. government issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury as a means of borrowing money to meet government expenditures not covered by tax revenues. , which will be pledged to secure the obligations of the contract holders under the stock purchase component of the Income PRIDES, which mature on Aug. 16, 2006. AMH's pro forma equity-adjusted leverage at March 31, 2005 was 21.2% and was within rating expectations. GAAP GAAP See: Generally Accepted Accounting Principles GAAP See generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). EBIT EBIT See: Earnings Before Interest and Taxes EBIT See earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT). fixed-charge coverage was 8.9 times (x) at Dec. 31, 2005 and 7.0x at March, 31 2006. AMH, an insurance holding company, is headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa “Des Moines” redirects here. For other uses, see Des Moines (disambiguation). Des Moines (pronounced /dɪˈmɔɪn/ in English, , and reported total assets of $24.7 billion and stockholders' equity of $1.7 billion at March 31, 2006. Fitch assigns the following rating with a Stable Outlook: AmerUs Group Co. -- $143.75 million notes due May 16, 2011 assigned at 'BBB'. The following issues are affirmed with a Stable Outlook by Fitch: AmerUs Group Co. -- Issuer Default Rating at 'BBB+' -- Senior notes at 'BBB'; -- PRIDES at 'BBB'; -- Perpetual preferred stock at 'BBB-'. AmerUs Capital I -- Trust preferred at 'BBB-'. Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use Terms of Use are rules set up by the owner of an intellectual property or service to govern how they may be legally used. In many cases, terms of service are used as a contractual agreement between a company and users of a service they provide. of such ratings are available on the agency's public site, www.fitchratings.com. Published ratings, criteria and methodologies are available from this site, at all times. Fitch's code of conduct, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, affiliate firewall, compliance and other relevant policies and procedures Policies and Procedures are a set of documents that describe an organization's policies for operation and the procedures necessary to fulfill the policies. They are often initiated because of some external requirement, such as environmental compliance or other governmental are also available from the 'Code of Conduct' section of this site. |
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