Bermuda-based Endurance Speciality Holdings Ltd. is benefiting from the woes afflicting Scor SA, France?s biggest reinsurer, Bloomberg News reported on Friday.

Scor confirmed on Friday that several reinsurance brokers have stopped recommending the company to clients because of concern about its credit rating, which Fitch Ratings dropped to junk this week.

?We have been temporarily suspended from certain brokers? recommended lists,? said spokesman Jim Root. ?They are fully aware of our turnaround effort. It?s an evolving situation.?

Paris-based Scor, the world?s seventh-largest reinsurer, sells about half of its policies through brokers, Root said.

About 50 percent of those brokered contracts are up for renewal in January, he said. Competitors such as Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd. said they have picked up business from Scor clients.

Scor has reported 589 million euros ($702 million) of losses to increase reserves for under-priced policies and to discontinue businesses, and may still lack funds to pay claims, Fitch said earlier last week. Scor, like other reinsurers, has already seen its capital eroded amid investment writedowns and claims from the September, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Fitch said this week that its BB+ financial strength rating assumes the company receives the capital. Fitch said it dropped Scor one level below investment grade on concern that the company?s credit ratings will impede sales. A financial strength rating measures an insurer?s ability to pay claims. Reinsurance companies take on risks from primary insurers.

?We are already seeing a lot of their business coming to us,? said Kenneth LeStrange, chief executive officer of Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd., which was formed after the September 11 attacks and sold shares in February. LeStrange said clients started to switch about six weeks ago.

Scor has the lowest credit rating among the top 20 global reinsurers that are still selling policies, according to Standard & Poor?s. Scor?s BBB- financial strength rating is lower than the BBB rating that Germany?s Gerling Global Re Group had last year when it stopped selling policies. Gerling, the ninth biggest reinsurer in 2002, is running off its old policies and negotiating lump-sum payments with clients to cancel contracts.

Scor plans to shore up its finances by raising 600 million euros from existing shareholders. S&P said it may raise Scor?s BBB- rating, the lowest investment grade level, if the company completes the capital increase and retains key clients and brokers.

Aon Corp., the world?s second-largest largest broker, is one of the brokers that dropped Scor, Wachovia Securities analyst Susan Spivak said in a research note. Aon spokeswoman Laura Kush said the company couldn?t immediately comment.

Guy Carpenter & Co. Inc., the reinsurance unit of Marsh & McLennan Cos., the biggest broker, doesn?t disclose its lists of recommended companies, chief economist Sean Mooney said.

?It?s not a death sentence,? Root said. ?It?s an issue our management is dealing with actively.?

Shares of Scor have fallen 35 percent this year.