S&P Assigns Austria’s UNIQA ‘A’ Rating

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services announced that it has assigned its “A” insurer financial strength and counterparty credit ratings to Austrian insurers UNIQA Personenversicherung AG (UPV) and UNIQA Sachversicherung AG (USV) with a stable outlook.

“The ratings on UPV and USV reflect their core status within the Austrian-based UNIQA insurance group (UNIQA), as they form intrinsic parts of UNIQA and contribute significantly to the group’s strong capitalization, strong competitive position, and improving consolidated earnings track record,” stated S&P credit analyst Ralf Bender.

S&P noted: “This is partly offset by the group’s improving, but still limited earnings diversification and potential capital needs deriving from its acquisitive growth strategy.

“The stable outlook reflects Standard & Poor’s expectation that the group will continue to benefit from strong operating performance,” Bender explained. Specifically, S1P said it “expects UNIQA to achieve net combined ratios of about 100 percent in both 2005 and 2006 and a pretax profit of at least 10 percent over the same period. The group’s earnings are expected to increasingly diversify away from the Austrian market through a stronger presence in the Central European region. Capitalization is expected to remain strong.”