2006
(19/10/2006)AXA Insurance rating upgrade
AXA Insurance UK is pleased to announce that Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has raised its long ratings from ‘A+’ to ’AA-‘. The upgrade, announced on Wednesday 18 th October, reflects Standard & Poor’s view that the insurer is set to meet the group’s profitability targets and maintain its capital adequacy in line with the new ranking. With non-life insurance integral to the group strategy and the UK being one of AXA’s main markets, Standard & Poor’s believe the insurer to be ‘core’ to the AXA group, where it had previously been considered ‘strategically important’.
Furthermore, the ratings service has given a ‘stable’ outlook as the AXA group looks set to maintain its strong financial profile with good top-line growth and strong earnings growth.* It also announced that this outlook may be revised to positive should the proposed acquistion of Winterthur Swiss Insurance Co. proceeds without any negative impact on the group’s financial profile.
Commenting on Standard & Poor’s announcement Peter Hubbard, CEO of AXA Insurance UK, said: “We are delighted with this ratings upgrade. It reflects the investment we have made in our systems as well as much hard work by our employees. It also underlines the importance of the non-life insurance business to the group. We believe there is room to upgrade our ratings further as we continue to grow and strengthen the business”.
The full ratings are: AA-/stable from A+/stable for the counterparty credit ratings and AA-/stable from A+/stable for the insurer financial strength ratings.
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* Top-line growth expected to be maintained above 5% in life and 3% in non-life with a combined earnings ratio of below 100% and a return on embedded value of above 10%.
Further information
Melissa Jobson, AXA Insurance, 020 7369 4293
About AXA
AXA Group is a worldwide leader in Financial Protection. AXA's operations are diverse geographically, with major operations in Western Europe , North America and the Asia/Pacific area. AXA had € 1,091 billion in assets under management as of June 30, 2006 , and reported total revenues of € 41 billion and underlying earnings of € 2,090 million for the first half of 2006.
AXA ordinary shares are listed on the Paris Stock Exchange; AXA American Depositary Shares (ADSs) are listed on the NYSE under the ticker symbol AXA.
Our previous company performance is not a guide to how we may perform in the future.