AM Best Affirms Credit Ratings of Blue Whale Re
AM Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of “a+” (Excellent) of Vermont-registered Blue Whale Re. The outlook of these ratings is stable.
The ratings reflect Blue Whale’s balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as very strong, as well as its strong operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management (ERM).
The ratings also reflect Blue Whale’s function as the only captive insurer for global pharmaceutical company Pfizer. As Blue Whale insures or reinsures Pfizer’s global property exposures, it plays a strategic and critical role in Pfizer’s overall ERM in protecting the Pfizer enterprise’s assets.
Blue Whale provides substantial retentions in coverages for Pfizer, augmenting significant reinsurance capacity. In recent years of hard market conditions, Blue Whale also has opted to participate in small slices of its catastrophe tower as an economic efficiency for the Pfizer enterprise. It also offers capacity for cyber liability coverage when required by hard market pricing. The reinsurance program is appropriate and diverse, providing ample coverage for all its lines of business. AM Best recognises the quality of the reinsurers and the substantial financial resources and assistance available to the captive as part of Pfizer. The captive covers low frequency/high severity exposures in which the losses have not compromised its strong operating performance nor profitability of the company.
The stable outlooks reflect AM Best’s view that the company will continue to generate operating results that engender supportive capitalisation for the ratings. Additionally, AM Best expects Pfizer’s ability and willingness to support Blue Whale, an integral part of Pfizer’s corporate ERM infrastructure and program, will not change.
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