S&P Global Ratings has affirmed its ‘A’ rating on the Britannia P&I Club, with a stable outlook over the next three years, based on its view that the Club’s current capital buffer well exceeds S&P’s ‘AAA’ level requirement.
S&P said that Britannia had an extremely strong level of capitalization and a strong market position in the P&I mutual business, where it had “a track record of quality in its underwriting” with “strong returns”.
The report also noted that the five-year average net combined ratio of 88.9% exceeded its long term break-even target and the peer average during the period 2014 to 2018 inclusive.
S&P said that the liquidity sources available to the Club were sound. In the event of major adverse claims development, it considered the Club to be well-positioned to meet any liquidity needs that might arise, largely due to the very strong credit quality of its bond portfolio. It called the Club’s liquidity ‘exceptional’.
Andrew Cutler, CEO of the Club’s Managers, Tindall Riley (Britannia), said the rating reflected one of Britannia’s core values of financial strength and well-articulated conservative risk tolerances across the organization.