Jul / 5 / 2016
OLDWICK, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–A.M. Best has assigned a financial strength rating (FSR) of A- (Excellent) and an issuer credit rating (ICR) of “a-” to Harrington Re Ltd. (Harrington). A.M. Best also has assigned an ICR of “bbb-” to Harrington Reinsurance Holdings Limited. Both companies are domiciled in Bermuda. The outlook assigned to each rating is stable.
Harrington is sponsored by AXIS Capital Holdings Limited (AXIS) and Blackstone Group L.P. (Blackstone). The lead operating company of AXIS, AXIS Specialty Limited (Bermuda), has an FSR of A+ (Superior) from A.M. Best. Blackstone was founded in 1985, has approximately $344 billion of assets under management as of March 31, 2016, and is a leading investment manager across a wide array of alternative assets strategies. Harrington will seek to leverage the strengths of AXIS’ underwriting platform and will be invested across a multi-asset alternative strategy managed by Blackstone.
The ratings reflect the prudent business plans presented to A.M. Best, strong risk-adjusted capitalization, the credibility and capability of Harrington’s management team, and the strong qualitative attributes of the sponsors. The plan is for AXIS to write business on behalf of Harrington with the goal of building a diversified, multi-line reinsurance book of business with strict limitations on property catastrophe risk. The investment portfolio is structured to have a balance of liquidity, cash flow, diversification by asset class, managed drawdown risk and strong absolute returns.
Negative rating actions could occur if Harrington is unsuccessful in executing its business plans over the long term, experiences outsized investment or catastrophe losses relative to peers or A.M. Best’s expectations, has strained risk-adjusted capitalization, has high debt leverage or loses key personnel.
Positive rating actions could occur if the company meets or exceeds its business plans over the long term while demonstrating sustainable operating results and maintaining strong risk-adjusted capitalization.
This press release relates to rating(s) that have been published on A.M. Best’s website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see A.M. Best’s Recent Rating Activity web page.
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james.peavy@ambest.com