S&P Affirms Employers Mutual Casualty Co ‘BBBpi’ Ratings

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services announced that it has affirmed its ‘BBBpi’ (the ‘pi’ indicates the ratings are based on “public information”) counterparty credit and financial strength ratings on Des Moines, Iowa-based Employers Mutual Casualty Co. and related pool members (collectively referred to as EMC), “based on the companies’ improving operating performance, partially offset by declining capitalization and high common stock leverage.”

“EMC has shown significant signs of improvement,” said S&P’s bulletin, “with a net gain of $26.5 million in the first six months of 2002 compared with a net loss of $13.2 million for the first six months of 2001.”

“The company’s poor performance in 2001 can be largely explained by record catastrophe losses, including losses related to the World Trade Center catastrophe,” noted S&P credit analyst Polina Chernyak.