A.M. Best Co. has affirmed the financial strength rating of A+ and issuer credit ratings, or ICR, of "aa-" of the primary life/health subsidiaries of Protective Life Corp. (PL), led by Protective Life Insurance Co., or PLIC. Additionally, A.M. Best has affirmed the ICR of "a-" and debt ratings of Protective. A.M. Best also has affirmed the debt ratings of the outstanding notes issued for the various funding agreement-backed securities programs of PLIC.
Concurrently, A.M. Best has assigned debt ratings of "a-" to the newly issued 10, 15 and 30-year senior unsecured notes totaling $800 million of Protective. The outlook for all ratings is negative.
The proceeds from the $800 million aggregate senior notes offering will be utilized by Protective to purchase newly-issued surplus notes from its special purpose financial captive, Golden Gate Captive Insurance Co. Golden Gate will then use the surplus note proceeds to repurchase, at a discount, $800 million of surplus notes that it originally issued to third parties. Therefore, the transaction's only impact on the group's capital will be the gain recorded on the repurchase.
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