S&P Eyes Fidelity National

The counterparty credit ratings on members of the Fidelity National Title Insurance Cos. Group and the parent company, Fidelity National Financial Inc., Irvine, Calif., have been placed on Credit Watch with developing implications by Standard & Poor's.S&P attributed the actions to FNF's recent announcement that it has agreed to buy the financial services division of Alltel Information Services in a stock-and-cash transaction valued at about $1.05 billion. The acquisition "has the potential to add earnings diversity via a significant non-interest-rate-sensitive steady income stream to the varied menu of FNF's real-estate-related products," the rating agency said. S&P added, however, that it is concerned about the size of the transaction, the fact that it is not directly related to title insurance, and the "considerable" amount of goodwill involved. S&P can be found on the Web at http://www.standardandpoors.com.