KBRA, the Kroll Bond Rating Agency, has assigned a BBB issuer rating to Universal Insurance Holdings, along with a BBB credit rating, ahead of the Florida insurance holding company’s refinance of $100 million in unsecured notes.
The ratings are slightly lower than the financial strength rating of “A-” that KBRA and the AM Best rating firms granted last fall to Universal Holding’s insurance carriers, Universal Property & Casualty and American Platinum P&C Insurance.
“KBRA views UVE’s holding company financial flexibility as supported by substantial recurring dividends and distributions from non-insurance subsidiaries, which provide cash flow not subject to ordinary insurance subsidiary dividend limitations,” KBRA said in a report last week. Universal’s operating company statutory results and consolidated GAAP results improved materially, the firm noted.
The publicly traded Universal Holdings, (UVE on the New York Stock Exchange), plans to refinance its $100 million in 5.635% unsecured notes that are due at the end of November. The new notes will be due in 2031. The outlook for the company’s ratings is stable, KBRA said.
The rating report and Universal’s first-quarter earnings statement give a glimpse of the massive firm’s financial picture in an improving market atmosphere. Universal’s “financial flexibility” is strongly supported by revenue from its non-insurance subsidiaries. In fact, from 2016 through 2025, UVE received approximately $1.3 billion of dividends and distributions from non-insurance consolidated subsidiaries, KBRA noted.
On the insurance side, some four years after Universal was working hard to shed policies, the holding company this spring reported almost a 6% gain in policies in force, up from 864,817 in Q1 2025 to 915,306, UVE’s Q1 financial statement shows.
Premiums in force also climbed by 4% from the year before, to $2.18 billion. Net income also rose—by 31%—to $54.3 million in that period. That’s a significant improvement from the $72 million loss Universal reported in Q3 2022, shortly after Hurricane Ian struck and the Florida market was still grappling with large litigation expenses.
Universal Holding’s combined ratio improved in Q1 this year, from 95% to 89.7%.
“We had a fantastic start to the year, with a 38.2% annualized return on common equity,” CEO Stephen Donaghy said in the statement. “Our top-line results were strong, with growth across our multi-state footprint, including in Florida.”
The firm’s reinsurance tower was fully renewed, he noted.
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