OREANDA-NEWS. S&P Global Ratings said today that it has assigned its 'BBB+' debt rating to Old Republic International Corp.'s (ORI) proposed issue of senior unsecured fixed-rate notes due 2026. The company expects to use the net proceeds from this issuance for general corporate purposes, including repaying the outstanding convertible senior notes due in 2018, unless earlier converted.

ORI's financial leverage and fixed-charge coverage pro forma for these issuances will remain less than 30% and more than 6x, respectively, in 2016 and 2017. We expect the leverage and coverage ratios to return to near 20% and greater than 8x, respectively, once the 2018 notes mature. The company continues to meet our expectations for operating performance. For the six months ended June 30, 2016, ORI reported generally accepted accounting principles net earnings of $224 million compared with $205.5 million for the same period in 2015. Through June 30, 2016, the general insurance and title insurance segments reported combined ratios of 97.4% and 94.8% respectively, compared with 97.1% and 94.5% for the same period in 2015.