S&P Affirms Old Republic International and Subs Rtgs.Business Editors NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Standard & Poor's Jan. 21, 2003--Standard & Poor's Ratings Services Ratings Service A company, such as Moody's or Standard & Poor's, that rates various debt and preferred stock issues for safety of payment of principal, interest, or dividends. said today that it affirmed its 'A+' issuer credit and senior debt ratings on Old Republic International Corp. (ORI) based on its extremely strongly capitalization and diverse group of subsidiaries with limited expected co-variance in operating results. Standard & Poor's also said that it affirmed its 'AA' counterparty credit and financial strength ratings on the members of Old Republic General Insurance Group (ORG) because of its strong to very strong overall profitability, extremely strong capitalization, and good relationships with the small-to-mid-sized companies that are its customers. In addition, Standard & Poor's assigned its 'AA' counterparty credit and financial strength ratings -- the same ratings as on ORG -- to Old Republic Union Insurance Co. (ORU ORU Oral Roberts University (Tulsa, Oklahoma) ORU Organized Research Unit(s) ORU Orbital Replacement Unit ORu Old Russian (linguistics) ORU Orbital Replaceable Unit ). ORU is a longstanding ORG member that hasn't been interactively rated for several years. Management expects that ORU, a well-capitalized unit, will write about $10 million of gross premium in directors' and officers' liability and errors and omissions errors and omissions n. short-hand for malpractice insurance which gives physicians, attorneys, architects, accountants and other professionals coverage for claims by patients and clients for alleged professional errors and omissions which amount to negligence. insurance in the coming year, 95% of which will be ceded to Old Republic Insurance Co., ORG's flagship insurer. Standard & Poor's also affirmed its 'A' counterparty credit and financial strength ratings on the members of Old Republic Life Insurance Group (ORLIG) based on its very strong (and almost extremely strong) capitalization, status as strategically important to its parent, and profits, which are satisfactory though modest compared with the equity invested in the group. The outlook on ORI and ORG is stable. The outlook on ORLIG has been revised to negative from stable. ORI, a holding company, is the parent of ORG and ORLIG. ORG is a group of commercial insurance companies whose main lines of business are commercial trucking and workers' compensation workers' compensation, payment by employers for some part of the cost of injuries, or in some cases of occupational diseases, received by employees in the course of their work. insurance. ORG also writes significant amounts of aviation, surety, general liability, and specialty coverages. The group distributes through independent agents and brokers and operates mainly in the central and southeastern part of the U.S. ORLIG is a group of three life insurance companies -- two interactively rated -- that offer specialty term life insurance policies with substantial face values through brokers, credit life and disability insurance through auto dealers complementing the extended warranty The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. insurance sold by an ORG unit, and specialty noncancelable accidental death and dismemberment dismemberment /dis·mem·ber·ment/ (dis-mem´ber-ment) amputation of a limb or a portion of it. dismemberment amputation of a limb or a portion of it. and income protection policies through financial intermediaries Financial intermediaries institution that provide the market function of matching borrowers and lenders or traders. . "The outlook on ORG reflects its solid and established business position, extremely strong capitalization, and history of strong earnings as well as an operating environment In computing, an operating environment is the environment in which users run programs, whether in a command line interface, such as in MS-DOS or the Unix shell, or in a graphical user interface, such as in the Macintosh operating system. that should be conducive to further strong results in the coming year," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Charles Titterton. The stable outlook on ORI stems from its capitalization and the diversity of sources of funds to repay its modest debt. The negative outlook on ORLIG is the result of its very small position in the ORI organization, unprepossessing results, and current statutory operating loss operating loss The excess of operating expenses over revenue. As with operating income, operating losses exclude revenues and expenses from operations that are not considered a regular part of the business. Also called deficit. Compare operating income. as well as and the fact that its contribution to ORG's operations has seldom been material. Complete ratings information is available to subscribers of RatingsDirect, Standard & Poor's Web-based credit analysis system, at www.ratingsdirect.com. All ratings affected by this rating action can be found on Standard & Poor's public Web site at www.standardandpoors.com; under Fixed Income in the left navigation bar A set of buttons or graphic images typically in a row or column used as a central point that link you to major topic sections on a Web site. If the navigation bar is a single graphic image with multiple selections, it is known as an imagemap. See imagemap. , select Credit Ratings Actions. Copyright 2003, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services |
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