Recent Ratings Recaps: Starbound Re II; Pacific Int’l.; NIPPONKOA; Carillon

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has assigned a “BBB+” rating to RenRe sidecar – Starbound Re II Ltd’s.proposed bank loans. Starbound II is a limited-life, special-purpose Class-3 reinsurance company, domiciled in Bermuda and set up specifically to provide additional capacity to the Florida insurance market. Renaissance Reinsurance Ltd. – rated “A+” with a stable outlook by S&P – has agreed to underwrite policies on behalf of Starbound II. The positive factors are somewhat compromised by the “difficulties of modeling exposure to natural disasters, which is exacerbated by Starbound II’s significant concentration of risk in Florida,” S&P noted.

A.M. Best Co. has affirmed the financial strength rating of “B+” (Good) and the issuer credit rating of “bbb-” of New Zealand’s Pacific International Insurance Limited with a stable outlook.

A.M. Best Co. has affirmed the financial strength rating of “A “(Excellent) and the issuer credit rating of “a+” of Japan’s NIPPONKOA Insurance Company Limited with a stable outlook. Best cited the Group’s “improved risk-adjusted capitalization, enhanced investment portfolio and adequate catastrophe coverage” as backing the ratings. But it warned that Nipponkoa’s market competitiveness is “challenged by a decline in market share and stagnant premium growth in the domestic non-life market.”

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has assigned a “B” senior secured debt rating to the $150 million series 2 class E principal at-risk variable-rate notes issued under Munich Re’s shelf program, Carillon Ltd, the second series of notes issued under the program. The notes collateralize protection against high severity losses incurred from U.S. hurricanes over the next four hurricane seasons. The issuer is a special-purpose Cayman Islands-exempted vehicle.