Aspen Insurance Holdings Ltd.

The stable outlook reflects our expectations that the group will continue to benefit from its competitive position within the global specialty and reinsurance market. As a result, underwriting performance will gradually improve to better than breakeven in the next two years. We also anticipate that Aspen will maintain capitalization at least at the 'AAA' level, as per our capital model. We would consider lowering the ratings if: Aspen's underwriting performance does not show further signs of improvement, signaling greater competitive pressure than we currently anticipate; Aspen's capital adequacy position declines and remains below the 'AAA' level for a prolonged period, and we believe that a rapid recovery to the 'AAA' capital level is unlikely. This could stem, for example, from

...S&P Global Ratings expects Aspen Group (Aspen, the group) to maintain its competitive position as a global specialist insurance and reinsurance group, amid continuous focus on improving its underwriting performance and reducing its expense ratio. We expect Aspen to return to profitability at year-end 2021, with a combined ratio at around breakeven and investment returns at approximately 2%. We think that the re-underwriting turnaround is on track as Aspen has been refocusing on its most profitable business lines and reduced its expense base over the past three years. In particular, the net accident year combined ratio (excluding catastrophe and pandemic-related losses and prior-year loss movements) improved to 93.1% at year-end 2020, compared with 104.9% at year-end 2019. Aspen's net combined ratio at half-year 2021 improved to 98%, in line with our expectation. However, we anticipate that elevated catastrophe losses observed in the second half of 2021 will likely offset the positive performance...

Full Report