Best Says Norton Re Deal Won’t Affect Brit’s Ratings

A.M. Best Co. commented that the ratings of UK-based Brit Insurance Limited (BIL), Brit Insurance Holdings PLC (BIH) and BIH’s debt issues “remain unchanged following BIH’s announcement that it has signed contracts for the launch of a specialist Bermuda-based reinsurance company, Norton Re, which will write fully collateralized catastrophe retrocession business.”

Norton Re will participate on treaties taking effect as of January 1, 2007, “using BIL’s retrocessional team operating from Bermuda,” Best noted.

“BIL has subscribed $21.1 million, giving it an overall interest of 19.6 percent in Norton Re via a holding company structure,” Best explained. It also indicated that it “treats this additional risk as an investment in its analysis and, as such, the size of the investment does not materially impact upon the ratings of BIL or its holding company parent, BIH.”