NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) Feb. 1, 2005--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that it assigned its preliminary 'BB' senior debt, 'BB-' subordinated debt, and 'B+' preferred stock ratings to Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd.'s (NYSE:FFH; BB/Stable/--) $750 million universal shelf. "FFH has filed this shelf registration so that it may offer subordinated voting shares, preferred shares, debt securities, warrants and other securities with both the Canadian securities regulatory authorities and the U.S. SEC," noted Standard&Poor's credit analyst Damien Magarelli. "We are not expecting any significant amounts of incremental debt to be offered through this universal shelf." At the same time, FFH has cancelled its previous universal shelf registration statement filed in March 2004, which had roughly $130
