Florida's property insurer of last resort said it will issue $3 billion in bonds next month to ensure enough funds to pay claims for the upcoming hurricane season.
Citizens Property Insurance Corp. last issued bonds in the spring of 2004 and before that in 1999.
Citizens' spokesman Justin Glover said the past two seasons of record hurricane losses have depleted the surplus of the residual market insurer.
The state-run carrier has paid out $5 billion in claims after eight hurricanes.
In addition, the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund is in the final stages of planning a bond issuance of over $1 billion to prepare for the upcoming season.
Fitch Ratings issued an "A-minus" senior debt rating and revised the outlook from negative to stable for Citizens.
Fitch analyst Brian Schneider said the rating reflected Citizens' state-authorized power to assess a large and diverse base of property insurers and policyholders in Florida following a large catastrophe.
Mr. Schneider noted that in the final day of the Florida Legislature 2006 session, lawmakers approved measures to allow Citizens to charge more actuarially sound rates and tap sales-tax revenues to fund the Citizens deficit.
"The outlook also reflects the expectation that Florida will continue to demonstrate its commitment to preserve a viable insurance marketplace," said Mr. Schneider.
Florida lawmakers also approved a series of funding measures aimed at shoring up smaller state insurers as well as granting them more access to the hurricane fund.
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