Insurer’s rating maintained as ‘A’ with stable outlook
Fitch Ratings has affirmed Brit Insurance’s rating.
The rating agency has announced it is maintaining the Netherlands-headquartered Insurer’s Financial Strenth rating as ‘A’ with a Stable Outlook.
Fitch said the affirmations and Stable Outlook reflect the Brit group’s “solid financial profile, which is supported by a strong level of risk-adjusted capitalisation and strong underlying earnings”.
Fitch also said that it viewed positively actions taken by management to streamline Brit’s operations and reduce costs following last year’s sale to private equity company Apollo, with underlying management expenses falling by 11.8% to £75.4m in the first half of the year.
In addition, Fitch understands that Brit intends to outsource a number of its non-core back and middle office functions.
The group reported an overall profit before tax for H1 2011 of £6.8m despite incurring substantial catastrophe-related losses.
The reported combined ratio, excluding FX effects, was 104.8% with a 15.5 percentage point impact from catastrophe claims.
Fitch views as positive the fact that the group reported an improvement in the attritional claims ratio of 3.5% to 58.6% over the same period.
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