OREANDA-NEWS. S&P Global Ratings said today that it has assigned its 'A-' long-term debt rating to PartnerRe Ltd.'s €750 million 1.25% unsecured notes due in 2026, which will be listed on the main securities market of the Irish Stock Exchange. The company intends to use the net proceeds of this issue to repay $250 million of 6.875% notes maturing in 2018, redeem Series D 6.5% and Series E 7.25% preferred shares, and for general corporate purposes. As a result, we expect the company to achieve yearly pretax savings on interest payments and dividends of approximately $16 million starting in 2017. The notes will be issued by PartnerRe Ireland Finance DAC (not rated) and will be fully and unconditionally guaranteed by the ultimate parent company, PartnerRe Ltd., the guarantor.

We expect that under Exor SpA (BIT: EXO) ownership, PartnerRe Group will maintain its extremely strong capitalization redundant at the 'AAA' level, continue to manage its business autonomously, and keep its own underwriting and investment risk tolerances. In general, reinsurance pricing continues to be soft across most lines of business and regions. As a result, we expect PartnerRe Group's premium growth to be flat to slightly down 2% in 2016-2017. Assuming a catastrophe load of five percentage points in the loss ratio, we forecast PartnerRe Group's combined ratio in the 92%-95% range and its return on revenue in the mid-teens in 2016-2017. Finally, we expect PartnerRe Group's financial leverage and coverage metrics to deteriorate temporarily in 2016, and the combined entity's financial leverage to rise to around 25% due to this new issuance and fixed-charge coverage at least 5x.