NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's CreditWire) July 14, 2000--Standard&Poor's today lowered its ratings on Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. (Fairfax) and related entities (see list). At the same time, Standard&Poor's revised the outlook to stable from negative. The ratings downgrade follows Standard&Poor's review of Fairfax's operations and its belief that the group's earnings remain below that required for the previous rating level. In addition, Standard&Poor's believes Fairfax's increased rate of acquisitions, combined with deteriorating operating results in 1998 and 1999, have left the holding company with the challenge of turning around a number of its operations. Many of Fairfax's insurance and reinsurance operations are currently experiencing some level of re-underwriting, consolidation, restructuring, or
