AM Best Affirms Credit Ratings of ACMAT Corporation and ACSTAR Insurance Company

AM Best has affirmed the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating (Long-Term ICR) of “bbb” (Good) of ACMAT Corporation (ACMAT) (Farmington, CT) [OTC Market: ACMT]. Concurrently, AM Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term ICR of “a” (Excellent) of ACMAT’s wholly owned subsidiary, ACSTAR Insurance Company (ACSTAR) (Chicago, IL). The outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) is stable.

The ratings reflect ACSTAR’s balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as very strong, as well as its strong operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management.

The ratings consider ACSTAR’s strongest level of risk-adjusted capitalization, as measured by Best’s Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR), as well as management’s prudent underwriting discipline and expertise in a specialized niche of the surety sector. In addition, management takes a conservative approach to reserves and investments. ACSTAR has attained above-average investment yields with investment income consistently contributing to operating profits. Offsetting these positive rating factors is the volatility in ACSTAR’s premium volume, which has contracted underwriting profits in recent years. In addition, sizable stockholder dividends, paid for debt service and opportunistic stock repurchases by the parent, ACMAT, compressed policyholders’ surplus. Nevertheless, ACSTAR’s risk-adjusted capitalization remains more than supportive of its balance sheet strength assessment. AM Best will continue to closely monitor ACSTAR’s underwriting trends and level of capital to ensure that the operating performance and balance sheet strength assessments remain suitable for their assessments and ratings.

This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Best’s website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Best’s Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Best's Credit Ratings. For information on the proper use of Best’s Credit Ratings, Best’s Performance Assessments, Best’s Preliminary Credit Assessments and AM Best press releases, please view Guide to Proper Use of Best’s Ratings & Assessments.

AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specializing in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

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