CU France Units Rated 'AA' By S&P; Outlook Stable.LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Standard & Poor's CreditWire 10/26/98-- Standard & Poor's today assigned as·sign tr.v. as·signed, as·sign·ing, as·signs 1. To set apart for a particular purpose; designate: assigned a day for the inspection. 2. its double-'A' counterparty Counterparty The other participant, including intermediaries, in a swap or contract. credit and financial strength ratings to certain entities of CU France (CUF CUF Civic United Front (political party, Zanzibar, Tanzania) CUF Centerpartiets Ungdomsförbund (Centre Party Youth League, Sweden) CUF Catholics United for the Faith ): Abeille Vie; Abeille Assurances; and C.U. Assurances. The outlook is stable. The ratings are based on the position of these companies as core operating entities of the CGU CGU Conditions Générales d'Utilisation (French) CGU Claremont Graduate University (Claremont, CA) CGU Chang Gung University (Taiwan) CGU Canadian Geophysical Union PLC group as determined by Standard & Poor's. The CGU group has a very strong and diversified diversified (di·verˑ·s business position supported by excellent capitalization capitalization n. 1) the act of counting anticipated earnings and expenses as capital assets (property, equipment, fixtures) for accounting purposes. 2) the amount of anticipated net earnings which hypothetically can be used for conversion into capital assets. , financial flexibility, and consistently strong earnings stream. CUF has a strong position in its domestic market and strong capitalization, although earnings, while growing regularly, remain below the parent company's target rate of return. Major rating factors: -- CUF represents a key part of the CGU group strategy to increase its European European emanating from or pertaining to Europe. European bat lyssavirus see lyssavirus. European beech tree fagussylvaticus. European blastomycosis see cryptococcosis. presence and to continue to build its life business. European life is seen as a long-term Long-term Three or more years. In the context of accounting, more than 1 year. long-term 1. Of or relating to a gain or loss in the value of a security that has been held over a specific length of time. Compare short-term. growth opportunity, particularly if governments begin to stimulate stimulate /stim·u·late/ (stim´u-lat) to excite functional activity. stim·u·late v. To arouse a body or a responsive structure to increased functional activity. private pension provision. CUF will represent about 19% of the CGU group's premium income. -- CUF has a strong market position, with a 3% share of both life and nonlife insurance markets in France, supported by well-diversified distribution channels. CUF ranked ninth for new life business in 1997 and 11th for nonlife. The Association Francaise d'Epargne Retraite (AFER) life product is one of the most successful savings products in France, although bancassurers are now proving tough competitors COMPETITORS, French law. Persons who compete or aspire to the same office, rank or employment. As an English word in common use, it has a much wider application. Ferriere, Dict. de Dr. h.t. in this market. This product accounts for 50% of life premium income. The company is less distinguished in traditional life products, lacking the scale of market leaders. Changes in the tax regime and uncertainty in respect of pension provision are creating a difficult operating environment In computing, an operating environment is the environment in which users run programs, whether in a command line interface, such as in MS-DOS or the Unix shell, or in a graphical user interface, such as in the Macintosh operating system. for the life company, with volatile With regard to computer memory, it means "temporary" and not "highly changeable," which is the usual meaning of the word. See volatile memory. 1. (programming) volatile - volatile variable. 2. (storage) volatile - See non-volatile storage. premium levels. -- Planning and management of the CUF group has improved following its acquisition by CGU. The group is now giving more attention to issues such as capital management, asset and liability management, and product development. -- Group capitalization has improved to a level considered strong by Standard & Poor's. The nonlife companies are well capitalized Capitalized Recorded in asset accounts and then depreciated or amortized, as is appropriate for expenditures for items with useful lives longer than one year. . Abeille Vie has needed capital support from the parent because of the high volumes of business written, and therefore high capital needs, but relatively low profitability to support this. CGU intends to maintain this improved level of capital. -- Overall funding of the CUF group has been aggressive, with significant debt volumes, at the holding company level. However, the debt is mainly internal to the CGU group and acts as a natural hedge when translating the balance sheet to sterling for reporting purposes. CGU fully supports the servicing of this debt (and in a recent external debt issue, provided a guarantee to bond holders). -- Performance has improved and is in line with returns seen in the French market, although profitability is generally lower than the target rate established by CGU PLC. Efforts are being made to improve performance, but Standard & Poor's expects this to be difficult in nonlife operations without additional economies of scale. Expectations: -- Slow growth in life premiums and probable PROBABLE. That which has the appearance of truth; that which appears to be founded in reason. decline in nonlife premiums as price competition increases; -- Some improvement in profitability; and -- Strong and stable capitalization, Standard & Poor's said. ---CreditWire -0- NEW RATINGS Abeille Vie Counterparty credit rating (Local currency) AA/Stable/-- Financial strength rating AA Abeille Assurances Counterparty credit rating (Local currency) AA/Stable/-- Financial strength rating AA C.U. Assurances Counterparty credit rating (Local currency) AA/Stable/-- Financial strength rating AA RELATED RATINGS Commercial Union PLC Counterparty credit rating (Local currency) --/--/A-1+ Commercial paper rating A-1+ Commercial Union Assurance Co. PLC Counterparty credit rating AA/Stable/-- Financial strength rating AA Commercial Union Assurance Co. of Australia Ltd. (and related entities) Counterparty credit rating (Local currency) AA/Stable/-- Financial strength rating AA General Accident Fire & Life Assurance Corp. PLC Counterparty credit rating (Local currency) AA/Stable/-- Financial strength rating AA General Accident Life Assurance Ltd. Counterparty credit rating (Local currency) AA/Stable/-- Financial strength rating AA General Accident Linked Life Assurance Ltd. Counterparty credit rating (Local currency) AA/Stable/-- Financial strength rating AA General Accident Insurance Co., of America (and related entities) Counterparty credit rating (Local currency) AA/Stable/-- Financial strength rating AA NZI Insurance New Zealand Ltd. Counterparty credit rating (Local currency) AA/Stable/-- Financial strength rating AA General Accident Assurance Co. of Canada (and related entities) Counterparty credit rating (Local currency) AA/Stable/-- Financial strength rating AA |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion