AM Best Assigns Issue Credit Rating to Brighthouse Financial, Inc.’s New Preferred Shares

AM Best has assigned a Long-Term Issue Credit Rating of “bbb-” to the $500 million, 5.375% non-cumulative preferred stock, Series C, to be issued by Brighthouse Financial, Inc. (Brighthouse) (headquartered in Charlotte, NC) [NASDAQ: BHF]. The outlook assigned to this Credit Rating (rating) is stable.

This transaction follows other capital transactions executed in 2020 by Brighthouse. The company intends to use the net proceeds to repay a portion of its senior notes maturing in 2027 and 2047. The impact of the transaction on leverage is expected to be slightly positive after the company pays down part of the debt. Brighthouse recently announced that it lowered its U.S. GAAP long-term mean reversion interest rate assumption by 75 basis points to 3.0%, which affected GAAP equity negatively. However, on a statutory basis, the company provides an estimated combined risk-based capital ratio range between 525% and 545% as of third-quarter 2020, an improvement from the first half of 2020.

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