Allianz Comments on S&P’s ‘A+’ Ratings for its Marine and Aviation Unit

Standard & Poor’s recently announced that Allianz Marine & Aviation, the transport and aviation insurer of the Allianz Group, has been rated “A+” with a stable outlook, drawing this comment from CEO Heinz-Werner Hof: “We are satisfied with this decision and confident to fulfil S&P’s positive expectations. We have overcome the strong price competition of the last few years and hope that the unusual series of large claims has come to an end.”

The bulletin cited S&P Credit analyst Jorg Ritthaler’s conclusions, that “The rating actions follows a detailed review by Standard & Poor’s of the restructuring of the Allianz Group’s global marine and aviation business, reflecting the concentration of this specialized business from various group companies into one single operating unit under the Allianz Marine & Aviation brand,” said Standard & Poor’s credit analyst. Standard & Poor’s considers Allianz Marine & Aviation to be a strategically important subgroup of Allianz AG.”

Allianz operates two companies within the group, one French one German. Both are backed by the parent. “The French entity is now supported by a strong liquidity support agreement, and Allianz Marine & Aviation (Germany) is protected by a profit and loss absorption agreement, both granted by Allianz AG,” said the bulletin. Together the companies wrote 1.3 billion ($1.44 billion) in gross premiums in 2001. Allianz has seven percent of the world market share, 10 percent in aviation and 5 percent in marine.

“Allianz Marine & Aviation’s operating performance is expected to show further improvements with continued combined ratios below 100 percent for the next two years, as in addition to a stringent profit-oriented underwriting discipline, further improvements in the market premium levels and in terms and conditions may be expected,” Ritthaler indicated.