NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) March 24, 2009--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that it revised its outlook on Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (Berkshire), Berkshire Hathaway Finance Corp., and Berkshire's core insurance companies, including Berkshire Hathaway Assurance Corp., to negative from stable. Standard&Poor's also said that it affirmed all of its ratings on these companies, including its 'AAA/A-1+' counterparty credit rating on Berkshire. "The decline in equity values in 2009 has reduced the statutory capital of the insurance operations, and a preliminary analysis of the group's capital adequacy indicates that the group's capital is no longer redundant at the 'AAA' level," said Standard&Poor's credit analyst John Iten. In December 2008, we said that we would consider
