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Insurance ratings actions: Moody's affirms AIG Europe; Fitch affirms Sanlam

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Insurance ratings actions: Moody's affirms AIG Europe; Fitch affirms Sanlam

S&P Global Market Intelligence compiles ratings actions in the insurance space daily through 5 p.m. ET. Actions after 5 p.m. ET will be included in the following day's roundup.

Life and health

DBRS confirmed Canada-based Empire Life Insurance Co.'s financial strength rating and issuer rating at A.

All trends are stable.

The confirmation reflects the company's position as a consistently performing life insurer with a proven track record of generating stable earnings while maintaining a conservative risk profile.

The stable trends consider Empire's resilient fundamentals and its ability to adapt to its current operating environment.

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Fitch Ratings affirmed the national long-term rating of AA+(zaf) assigned to South Africa-based Sanlam Ltd.

Also affirmed were the national insurer financial strength ratings of AAA(zaf) and national long-term ratings of AAA(zaf) given to subsidiaries Sanlam Life Insurance Ltd., Sanlam Developing Markets Ltd. and Santam Ltd.

Additionally, the agency affirmed the national short-term rating of F1+(zaf) assigned to Sanlam Life.

The affirmations reflect Sanlam group's strong business profile, and very strong capitalization and operating performance.

Multiline

Moody's assigned an A3 insurance financial strength rating to Saudi Arabia-based Chubb Arabia Cooperative Insurance Co.

The outlook is stable.

The rating reflects the good standalone financial fundamentals of the company's operations, as well as one-notch support stemming from its affiliation to Chubb Ltd. The stable outlook reflects the agency's expectation that, with the support of Chubb, Chubb Arabia will maintain its strong profitability and capital adequacy.

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Moody's affirmed the A2 insurance financial strength rating of U.K.-based AIG Europe Ltd.

The agency also assigned provisional insurance financial strength ratings of (P)A2 to two newly formed indirect American International Group Inc. subsidiaries: U.K.-based American International Group UK Ltd. and Luxembourg-based AIG Europe SA.

The ratings outlook for these entities is stable, which reflects Moody's view that AIG Europe Ltd., and its successor companies, will reduce its underwriting and reserve volatility and improve its combined ratio to less than 100%.

The affirmation for AIG Europe Ltd. reflects the company's strong market position in U.K. commercial lines, diversified product offerings across Europe, conservative investment strategy and support provided by affiliates.

Moody's anticipates that American International Group UK and AIG Europe SA will be well capitalized and will write a broad range of property and casualty coverages. The provisional ratings of the two companies incorporate the agency's expectation that they will receive explicit and implicit support from affiliates.

Property and casualty

S&P Global Ratings lowered its long-term issuer credit and insurer financial strength ratings on Qatar-based Al Khaleej Takaful Insurance Co. QPSC to BBB from BBB+.

The outlook is negative, reflecting the risk that unreported impairment losses, weakened liquidity and the inability of management to resolve financial reporting issues could result in a further downgrade, according to the rating agency.

The downgrade reflects S&P's view that Al Khaleej Takaful Insurance's financial performance has deteriorated due to both reported and unreported impairments on its equity investments that have weakened its liquidity.

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S&P lowered its long-term issuer credit rating on Confie Seguros Holding II Co. to CCC+ from B- and placed them on CreditWatch with developing implications.

The downgrade mainly reflects the company's refinancing risk from its significant debt maturities over the next six months and one year, as well as continued covenant tightness and higher leverage.

S&P views Confie's business risk position as weak, reflecting its somewhat limited scale and scope, and increased performance volatility over the past several years.

The CreditWatch with developing implications reflects the possibility of a positive or negative ratings action over the next six months, depending on the company's refinancing initiatives, the rating agency said.

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 documents referred to in this news brief can be found here and here.

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