AM Best Places Credit Ratings of Austral Participações S.A. and Its Subsidiaries Under Review With Developing Implications
- October 16, 2026 01:18 PM (EDT)
//BestWire// - AM Best has placed under review with developing implications the Financial Strength Rating of A- (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Ratings (Long-Term ICR) of “a-” (Excellent) of Austral Resseguradora S.A. and Austral Seguradora S.A. (Austral Seg). Concurrently, AM Best has placed under review with developing implications the Long-Term ICR of “bbb-” (Good) of Austral Participações S.A. All companies are domiciled in Brazil and collectively referred to as Austral.
Austral’s Credit Ratings (ratings) have been placed under review with developing implications following the announcement that Liberty Mutual Insurance Company (Liberty Mutual) has agreed to acquire Austral Seg. This most recent transaction follows strategic decisions in Latin America that includes starting a new subsidiary in Brazil in 2024. The plan is to eventually merge Austral Seg’s operations into Liberty Mutual Surety Brasil Seguros S.A.
Austral’s ratings will remain under review with developing implications pending regulatory approvals, closing conditions and AM Best’s evaluation of the organization’s integration and future business plans.
The methodology used in determining these ratings is Best’s Credit Rating Methodology (Version Aug. 29, 2024), which provides a comprehensive explanation of AM Best’s rating process and contains the different rating criteria employed in the rating process. Best’s Credit Rating Methodology can be found at www.ambest.com/ratings/methodology.
Key insurance criteria reports utilized:
- Evaluating Country Risk (Version June 6, 2024)
- Understanding Global BCAR (Version July. 16, 2026)
- Catastrophe Analysis in AM Best Ratings (Version Feb. 27, 2026)
- Available Capital and Insurance Holding Company Analysis (Version Sept. 18, 2025)
- Rating Surety Companies (Version April 25, 2024)
- Scoring and Assessing Innovation (Version Feb. 20, 2025)
- Measuring Transfer and Convertibility Risk (Version July 11, 2024)
View a general description of the policies and procedures used to determine credit ratings. For information on the meaning of ratings, structure, voting and the committee process for determining the ratings and monitoring activities, relevant sources of information and the frequency for updating ratings, please refer to Guide to Best’s Credit Ratings.
- Previous Rating Date: June 5, 2026
- Initial Rating Date: Feb. 26, 2021
- Date Range of Financial Data Used: Dec. 31, 2020-June 30, 2026
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AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specializing in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City.