...NEW YORK (Standard & Poor's) Feb. 23, 2015--Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said today that it assigned its '###-' debt rating to Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd.'s (FFH) C$350 million 4.95% senior unsecured notes due 2025. In addition, we assigned our '##' local currency and 'P-3' Canada National Scale rating to FFH's C$200 million Series M, five-year rate reset preferred stock offering. We based the preferred stock rating on two notches of subordination to our '###-' long-term counterparty credit and senior debt ratings on FFH. We expect the preferred stock to qualify as intermediate equity content under our criteria for hybrid securities. FFH expects to use the proceeds from the notes and the preferred stock to partially fund the previously announced proposed acquisition of Brit plc. The company also plans to fund part of the acquisition through the recently announced issuance of C$650 million of subordinate voting shares. We expect all these issues to close on or about March 3, 2015....
