AM Best revises outlook to stable for New India Assurance Company Limited

New Jersey, Feb 1 (ANI-Business Wire India): A.M. Best Co. has affirmed the financial strength rating of A- (Excellent) and the issuer credit rating (ICR) of The New India Assurance Company Limited. The outlook on both ratings has been revised to stable from negative.

The rating action follows the revision of India's Country Risk Tier by A.M. Best. The ratings also reflect New India's strong risk-adjusted capitalization and leading business position in the Indian market.

A.M. Best has revised the Country Risk Tier of India to Tier III from Tier IV. The revision reflects that A.M. Best has an improved opinion of the potential impact of country-specific factors on New India's financial strength and ability to meet its financial obligations.

New India's risk-adjusted capitalization, as measured by Best's Capital Adequacy Ratio, remained strong in 2006-2007. However, the company's risk-adjusted capitalization is highly exposed to the Indian equity market, given 48% of its invested assets are in Indian equities. Adverse movements in the domestic equity market will exert pressure on New India's risk-adjusted capitalization.

New India's business profile remains strong, with the company maintaining its leading business position in the domestic market. However, competitive pressures from other government-owned and private insurers are increasing with New India growing at slower rates than the market for the 12 months to March 2007.

Offsetting factors are the company's continued poor underwriting performance, its heavy reliance on investment income and high investment exposure to the Indian equity market.

New India's underwriting performance remained unfavorable in 2006-2007. However, underwriting losses decreased to INR 6.5 billion (USD 150 million) in 2006-2007 from INR 11.9 billion (USD 275 million) in 2005-2006. New India's combined ratio improved to 112.8% in 2006-2007 (126.9% in 2005-2006) due to reduced underwriting expenses and higher net premium retention. The company expects the ratio to fall below 100% by 2010, led by improvements in claims experience.

As a result of unfavorable underwriting performance, New India has relied heavily on investment income to offset its underwriting losses. A.M. Best remains cautious on the performance of New India's investment portfolio.

ANI