Fitch Upgrades AmerUs to Aviva's U.S. Ratings on Acquisition.NEW YORK New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of -- Fitch Ratings Fitch Ratings An international rating agency for financial institutions, insurance companies, and corporate, sovereign, and municipal debt. Fitch Ratings has headquarters in New York and London and is wholly owned by FIMALAC of Paris. has upgraded the Insurer Financial Strength (IFS) ratings of AmerUs Group Co.'s (AmerUs) insurance subsidiaries to 'A+' from 'A' and its senior debt rating to 'BBB+' from 'BBB'. Fitch's IFS ratings for Aviva's existing U.S. life insurance operations are 'A+'. A full listing of AmerUs' ratings is provided below. The Rating Outlook for all ratings is Stable. These rating actions follow AmerUs' announcement that the acquisition of AmerUs by Aviva plc is complete, effective today. The upgrade reflects that AmerUs has become part of a higher rated entity with substantial resources and financial flexibility. Fitch also expects strengthened product diversification and distribution opportunities to result from the combination of the U.S. operations of Aviva and AmerUs. Aviva plc writes both life and non-life business and has operations worldwide. Within its key markets, it holds top five positions. At year-end 2005, Aviva plc had $552 billion in assets under management Assets Under Management (AUM) is a term used by financial services companies in the mutual fund and money management or investment management business to gauge how much money they are managing. and $15 billion in shareholders equity. The combined AmerUs and Aviva U.S. operations will be headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa “Des Moines” redirects here. For other uses, see Des Moines (disambiguation). Des Moines (pronounced /dɪˈmɔɪn/ in English, . The combined U.S. operations have a leading position in the fixed annuity Fixed Annuity An insurance contract in which the insurance company makes fixed dollar payments to the annuitant for the term of the contract, usually until the annuitant dies. The insurance company guarantees both earnings and principal. market. The following ratings were upgraded by Fitch with a Stable Outlook: AmerUs Group Co. -- Issuer Default Rating (IDR IDR In currencies, this is the abbreviation for the Indonesian Rupiah. Notes: The currency market, also known as the Foreign Exchange market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average volume of over US $1 trillion. ) to 'A-' from 'BBB+'; -- 6.583% senior notes due May 16, 2011 to 'BBB+' from 'BBB'; -- 5.95% senior notes due Aug. 15, 2015 to 'BBB+' from 'BBB'. AmerUs Capital I -- Trust preferred to 'BBB' from 'BBB-'. AmerUs Life Insurance Co. -- IFS to 'A+' from 'A'. Indianapolis Life Insurance Company -- IDR to 'A' from 'A-'; -- Surplus notes to 'A-' from 'BBB+'; -- IFS to 'A+' from 'A'. American Investors Life Insurance Co. -- IFS to 'A+' from 'A'. Bankers Life Insurance Co. of New York -- IFS to 'A+' from 'A'. Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use Terms of Use are rules set up by the owner of an intellectual property or service to govern how they may be legally used. In many cases, terms of service are used as a contractual agreement between a company and users of a service they provide. of such ratings are available on the agency's public site, www.fitchratings.com. Published ratings, criteria and methodologies are available from this site, at all times. Fitch's code of conduct, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, affiliate firewall, compliance and other relevant policies and procedures Policies and Procedures are a set of documents that describe an organization's policies for operation and the procedures necessary to fulfill the policies. They are often initiated because of some external requirement, such as environmental compliance or other governmental are also available from the 'Code of Conduct' section of this site. |
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