Ratings Roundup: PZU, Fortis Corporate

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has issued a release indicating that its ‘A-‘ long-term counterparty credit and insurer financial strength ratings on non-life insurer Powszechny Zaklad Ubezpieczen S.A. (PZU S.A.) and life insurer Powszechny Zaklad Ubezpieczen na Zycie S.A., core entities of Poland’s composite insurance group PZU, “are unaffected by the dismissal of the group’s CEO, Jaromir Netzel.” He was dismissed last week and Agata Rowinska, vice-chairman of the supervisory board of PZU S.A., was appointed CEO of PZU S.A. S&P added, however, that the “negative outlook continues to reflect our concern at discontinuity of the management board and uncertainty about shareholder influence on the group.”

Standard & Poor’s Rating Services has affirmed its ‘A’ counterparty credit and insurer financial strength ratings on Benelux-based commercial lines insurer Fortis Corporate Insurance N.V. (FCI) with a stable outlook. “The ratings reflect FCI’s strong competitive position; strong operating performance; and strong, albeit declining, capitalization,” stated S&P credit analyst Lotfi Elbarhdadi. “They are underpinned by support from the Fortis group.” FCI is the commercial lines insurance arm of Fortis Insurance Division (FID) and is a subsidiary of Fortis Insurance International (FII), part of the Fortis group.