INSURANCE TYCOON Seán Quinn has pulled out of his company’s credit rating contract with Moody’s, stating that current market conditions mean there is little prospect of an upgrade.
Moody’s yesterday revised its outlook on Quinn Insurance to stable from positive and said its Baa2 insurance financial strength rating on the firm would be withdrawn. “The rating withdrawal is for business reasons,” Moody’s said.
Quinn Insurance is controlled by Mr Quinn through his Quinn Group conglomerate, which has in interests in the cement, leisure clubs, hotels, glass, radiators, property, stockbroking and energy sectors, among others.
“We’ve no debt in issue so we’ve no requirement for a rating,” a spokesman said.
“Given the current turbulence in global financial markets and the impact of this on the credit ratings of financial institutions generally, we feel that any upgrade of our credit rating is unlikely in the short term and have therefore decided to withdraw our Moody’s credit rating for the time being.”
When asked whether the decision was related in any way to the losses incurred by Quinn Group and Mr Quinn on a big investment in Anglo Irish Bank, he said: “We’ve already explained why we have withdrawn the rating.”
The interest of Mr Quinn and his companies in Anglo was understood to be in the region of 5 per cent when reported in January 2007. Anglo shares traded at about €15.91 early last year, valuing a 5 per cent stake at €573.85 million. The shares closed last night at €5.47.
