NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) March 29, 2016--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that it assigned its 'BBB+' senior unsecured debt rating to Markel Corp.'s proposed senior notes. We expect Markel to use the proceeds of this offering for general corporate and refinancing purposes. We expect Markel's financial leverage to increase to approximately 25%-27% on a pro-forma 2015 basis as a result of this issuance (from actual 24% based on our financial leverage calculations), which is higher than our previous expectation of financial leverage in the 22%-24% range for the group. The increased leverage is partially mitigated by significant cash and invested assets at the holding-company level, which as of year-end 2015 approached $1.5 billion. Markel continued to meet
