Ingosstrakh OSAO : Standard&Poor’s Confirms Ingosstrakh Insurance Company Rating at “BBB- / ruAA+”

Standard & Poor's (S&P) international rating agency has confirmed the long-term counterparty credit rating and insurer financial strength rating of Ingosstrakh Insurance Company at "BBB-". At the same time, the ratings of the company have been excluded from CreditWatch list ("ratings under revision"), outlook "negative". The company's rating on the national scale was confirmed at "ruAA +".

Standard & Poor's report comments that "negative" outlook reflects the outlook on the sovereign credit ratings of the Russian Federation and the uncertainty as to whether Ingosstrakh Insurance Company can manage to continue to improve its operating performance, liquidity and capital adequacy in the difficult economic environment and the current market conditions in Russia.

The confirmation of the rating by the agency was also based on the measures taken by the company's management in 2013, including those aimed at increasing the reserves and the significant reduction of business in the loss-making segment of compulsory motor third party civil liability insurance.

According to the agency, the company demonstrated improvement in its liquidity indicators in H1 of 2014, and the level of liquidity of Ingosstrakh Insurance Company is currently rated by S&P as "adequate". The agency continues to rate the insurer's competitive position as "strong", and its capital and earnings indicators as "adequate".

In the opinion of Standard&Poor's, the ratings outlook can be changed to 'Stable' in case of the revision of the Russia's sovereign outlook as "stable", and provided that in the next two years Ingosstrakh Insurance Company manages to improve its financial results in accordance with the expectations of the agency despite the difficult operational environment.

Standard&Poor's first awarded long-term counterparty credit rating and financial strength rating to Ingosstrakh Insurance Company in 2004. The company received its first BBB rating in 2007.

It should be noted that apart from the S&P rating, Ingosstrakh Insurance Company also has the highest security rating of A++ of the Russian rating agency "Expert RA", which has awarded annual ratings to the insurer since 2002.