S&P Global Ratings on July 2 upgraded the national scale ratings on several South African insurers and removed the ratings from under criteria observation.

The rating agency upgraded the South Africa national scale ratings to zaAAA from zaAA+ of AIG Life South Africa Ltd., AIG South Africa Ltd., Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty South Africa Ltd., GIC Re South Africa Ltd., Liberty Group Ltd., Old Mutual PLC's Old Mutual Life Assurance Co. (South Africa) Ltd., Sanlam Life Insurance Ltd. and Santam Ltd.

The same ratings of Sanlam Capital Markets Pty. Ltd. and Santam Structured Insurance Ltd. were upgraded to zaAA+ from zaAA-.

Sanlam Ltd.'s South African national scale rating was also upgraded to zaAA- from zaA.

S&P noted that the rating actions do not reflect any change in the fundamental credit quality of the insurers, while its global scale issuer and issue credit ratings were not affected by the actions.

This S&P Global Market Intelligence news article may contain information about credit ratings issued by S&P Global Ratings, a separately managed division of S&P Global. Descriptions in this news article were not prepared by S&P Global Ratings. The original S&P Global Ratings document referred to in this news brief can be found in the sources section.