Standard & Poor's also said that it placed on CreditWatch negative its surplus notes rating on Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Co. and lowered it to 'CCC' from 'B+'.
"Standard & Poor's expects to resolve the CreditWatch status of the ratings following its evaluation of year-end 2002 statements and receipt of additional information," noted Standard & Poor's credit analyst Frederic A. Sklow.
Complete ratings information is available to subscribers of RatingsDirect, Standard & Poor's Web-based credit analysis system, at www.ratingsdirect.com. All ratings affected by this rating action can be found on Standard & Poor's public Web site at www.standardandpoors.com under Fixed Income in the left navigation bar, select Credit Ratings Actions.
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