NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) Sept. 11, 2003--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that it assigned its 'B+' preferred stock rating to Argonaut Group Inc.'s (Argonaut; NASDAQ:AGII) Series A Mandatory Convertible Preferred Stock. The registration statement for this issue was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Aug. 26, 2003. These securities, totaling $35.4 million, were sold earlier in 2003 by Argonaut in private transactions to HCC Holdings Inc. and to another investor. The ratings on Argonaut were affirmed and removed from CreditWatch on Aug. 8, 2003. 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&
