AM Best affirms the Financial Strength Rating of ‘A’ (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Ratings of ‘a+’ (Excellent) for both Castle Harbour Insurance Limited and Harrington Sound Insurance Limited. The outlook of the Credit Ratings is ‘stable’. Both captives are domiciled in Bermuda and are the single-parent captive insurance companies of their ultimate parent, SLB N.V. (SLB). SLB N.V. is a global technology company focused on energy innovation. The ratings reflect the companies’ balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as strongest, along with their strong operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management (ERM). Castle Harbour and Harrington Sound maintain the strongest level of risk-adjusted capitalisation, as measured by Best’s Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR), and display excellent liquidity measures. Key rationale points supporting the rating include: Strong operating performance reflects favourable underwriting results, which are driven by excellent loss history and benefit from inherently low expense structures as single-parent captives. The captives' strategic importance is placed on providing tailored insurance coverages for SLB N.V. and its subsidiaries. Significant retentions are managed within their capital bases and organic surplus growth, even when offset by periodic sizable dividends. The companies are considered an integral part of the parent’s ERM framework, and AM Best recognises the financial flexibility afforded by the parent. Both captives write a broad scope of business and have considerable geographic diversification, despite each carrying relatively large limits in their designated coverages for the parent in general liability and property lines of business.
