S&P Affirms Ratings on RenaissanceRe (RNR); Places Platinum Underwriters (PTP) on CreditWatch Negative

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said today that it affirmed its 'A' long-term counterparty credit ratings on RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: RNR) and DaVinciRe Holdings Ltd., our 'AA-' financial strength ratings and long-term counterparty credit ratings on its core operating subsidiaries, and our 'A+' financial strength rating and long-term counterparty credit rating on RenaissanceRe Specialty Risks Ltd. (RSRL). The outlook is stable.

We also placed our 'BBB' long-term counterparty credit rating on Platinum Underwriters Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: PTP) and our 'A-' financial strength ratings and long-term counterparty credit ratings on its operating subsidiaries on CreditWatch with positive implications.

The affirmation of our ratings on RenaissanceRe reflects our view that RenaissanceRe as a whole and RenaissanceRe Specialty Risks Ltd. individually will remain capitalized with redundancies at the 'AAA' level. We expect financial leverage to remain less than 20% and fixed-charge coverage of the combined entity to be around 7x-8x during the next two years. The integration risk of the acquisition is mitigated by the relative simplicity of Platinum's organizational structure based on both legal entities and office locations, and the ease with which RenaissanceRe will be able to assimilate Platinum's property catastrophe portfolio onto its platform. Successful execution will accelerate the progress of RenaissanceRe's expansion into specialty and casualty reinsurance with the addition Platinum's profitable book of diversifying business.

Our placement of our ratings on Platinum on CreditWatch reflects the potential support it will receive as an important part of RenaissanceRe's specialty strategy and the overall RenaissanceRe group. The historically profitable casualty book would contribute meaningfully to RenaissanceRe's profits. Over time, Platinum may also benefit from enterprise risk and managerial resources at RenaissanceRe upon full integration of its risk systems and underwriting platforms. Given the affiliation to the RenaissanceRe brand and a larger balance sheet, the company could also solidify its competitive position.

The stable outlook on our ratings on RenaissanceRe reflect its sustainable ability to generate robust, albeit volatile, profits. The outlook also considers the company's leadership position in property catastrophe reinsurance and its very strong enterprise risk management (ERM).

We could lower the ratings if RenaissanceRe's competitive position deteriorates, it suffers significant property catastrophe losses that hurt capital adequacy or its relationships with third-party capital sources, it materially underperforms peers following a catastrophe event, its operating performance deteriorates, or the build-out of its specialty reinsurance book or integration of Platinum experiences setbacks that affect the group's performance.

We are unlikely to raise the ratings during the next 24 months due to RenaissanceRe's concentrated business profile, integration risks regarding the Platinum acquisition, and potential capital and earnings volatility.

The stable outlook on RSRL parallels our outlook on the RenaissanceRe group given its strategic importance to the group. If we change the ratings or revise our outlook on the group, we could revise our ratings on RSRL. We expect its competitive position to strengthen as it writes additional business and becomes an integral part of the group's offerings, and for the group to provide continuous support and maintain appropriate capitalization at RSRL and RenaissanceRe Specialty U.S.

We could lower the ratings on RSRL if we lower our ratings on the group, if RSRL suffers significant underwriting losses, or if the build-out of the specialty reinsurance operations or integration of Platinum encounters setbacks that challenge the business model's sustainability and the company's importance to the group.

We could raise the ratings during the next 24 months if the specialty businesses become integral operations to the group. We are unlikely to raise the ratings due to improvements in the stand-alone credit characteristics because of the unlikelihood of raising the ratings on the parent group, which limit the ratings on noncore operations at RSRL's current ratings.

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