AM Best yesterday put the ratings of three local insurance companies under review with "negative implications" after the Island was hit by Hurricane Fabian.

"These rating actions reflect the uncertainty surrounding the ultimate net exposure from Hurricane Fabian and the impact on capitalisation on each of the groups," said the report by the leading ratings agency.

But BF&M, Argus Group and Colonial Group, the three companies whose ratings have been placed under review by AM Best yesterday said they were in good shape and there was no way they were going to go under.

The highly regarded United States ratings agency has placed the financial strength ratings of A minus (Excellent) of Colonial Group and BF&M Ltd. under review with "negative implications" and the Argus Group's A (Excellent) under review with "negative implications".

"Although all three groups carry catastrophe reinsurance protection, it is premature to assess the total insured impact of the storm," said AM Best. "The ratings will remain under review pending further discussion with each management group."

Glenn Titterton, president and chief executive officer of BF&M, said that his company was "very heavily reinsured" and that AM Best would quickly change their assessment once they had looked at their numbers.

"When they discuss it with us I think they will be satisfied," said Mr. Titterton. "We are a very conservatively reinsured and the impact on our balance sheet will be fairly negligible."

Larry Osborne, the head of property and casualty at Argus, said that his company was not under threat because of the impact of Hurricane Fabian.

"There is no threat to us," he said. `We have a widely capitalised base. And as far as we know at this point there is no claim out there that has not been processed that will change this figure."

He said that at this stage Argus appeared to have gotten off quite lightly compared to its competitors in terms of claims for insured losses.

And Mr. Osborne said that he was prepared to bet his newly re-connected electricity that none of the local insurance companies in Bermuda would be in any danger of going under following the storm. "The men from Belco can come along and put off the electricity again if I am wrong," he said.

Colonial Insurance's chief executive officer Alan Peacock had just managed to get back to Bermuda yesterday after being stranded abroad during the storm.

He also said that his company was in no danger financially following the large number of claims seen after the storm.

"We are not at all concerned about the impact of Fabian on our company," said Mr. Peacock.

Mr. Peacock said that in fact there had been less damage than they had predicted from a storm of this strength.

"It is a testament to the good standard of building in Bermuda," said Mr. Peacock. "There is much less damage than we thought there would be."

Yesterday a preliminary study by WIR World-wide Corp. placed the estimated cost of Hurricane Fabian to the Island's insurers at between $300 and $350 million.

But this figure has been deemed on the high side by both Argus and BF&M, who have both been working on their preliminary estimates of the cost of the damage.