Moody’s has affirmed the ratings of Northwind Holdings (Northwind) and Tailwind Holdings (Tailwind), two wholly owned companies of Unum Group.
The ratings company confirmed the "Baa1" (sf) ratings of the insured life insurance-linked securities of Northwind. Tailwind also received the same rating of "Baa1" (sf).
Obligations rated baa are judged to be medium-grade and subject to moderate credit risk and as such may possess certain speculative characteristics. The (sf) indicator was introduced in 2010 and stresses that structured finance ratings should: “eliminate any presumption that such ratings and fundamental ratings at the same letter grade level will behave the same,” said Moody’s in a document.
“The (sf) indicator for structured finance security ratings indicates that otherwise similarly rated structured finance and fundamental securities may have different risk characteristics.”
The outlook for both ratings is stable.
Tailwind Holdings is the shareholder of Tailwind Reinsurance, a special purpose captive reinsurer domiciled in South Carolina.
Northwind is the shareholder of Northwind Reinsurance Company, a special purpose captive reinsurance company domiciled in Vermont.
Moody's senior vice president, Scott Robinson, said: "The affirmation reflects deal performance in line with our expectations as determined by modeling of the reinsurance cash flows and the performance of the underlying invested assets."