A.M. Best affirms Peace Hills’ financial strength rating, improves outlook to ‘stable’

A.M. Best Co. has revised its outlook for Peace Hills General Insurance Company (Alberta, Canada) to stable from negative, and affirmed the financial strength rating of B (Fair).
“The revised outlook of Peace Hills reflects its improved risk-adjusted capitalization due primarily to investment and underwriting gains,” A.M. Best said in a press release. “Capitalization is steadily recovering from the adverse impact of the equity market downturn occurring in 2008.”
A.M. Best noted its ratings continue to reflect soft commercial lines pricing and strong competitive pricing pressure.
“Partially offsetting these negative ratings factors is Peace Hills’ historically favorable operating results and the corrective actions implemented by the company’s management team to reduce investment leverage and earnings volatility,” the ratings company said. “The company also is focused on increasing premium rates across all major lines of business and to slow growth.”