S&P Comments on Allianz Marine & Aviation Positive CreditWatch

In a comment on its CreditWatch placement of Germany’s P/C insurer Allianz Marine & Aviation Versicherungs AG (AMA G) and France’s P/C insurer Allianz Marine & Aviation, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said that its long-term counterparty credit and insurer financial strength ratings on both entities remain on CreditWatch with positive implications, where they were placed on Nov. 22, 2005.

S&P took the rating action following Allianz AG’s (AZAG) announcement that it plans to merge the German-based group’s internal reinsurer for industrial business Allianz Global Risks (AGR) as well as the industrial business written by the German non-life operations of the Allianz group into AMA G.

Allianz AG is currently rated “AA-“with a stable outlook and debt ratings of “A-1+.”

“The CreditWatch placement will be resolved when the transaction has been completed, which is expected by the end of August 2006 at the latest,” said S&P. “The CreditWatch status reflects that Standard & Poor’s is likely to add more implicit support to AMA G and perhaps to AMA F after a successful restructuring.”

“Standard & Poor’s needs to determine whether the new AMA G and industrial business in general are core or strategically important to AZAG,” stated credit analyst Karin Clemens. “The ratings on AMA G and AMA F could be raised by two or three notches depending on Standard & Poor’s assessment of the entities’ future group status.”

S&P added that it would “update the CreditWatch placement after further discussions with management and remove the ratings from CreditWatch when the restructuring has taken place.”