S&P downgrades Munich Re.

National Underwriter Property & Casualty-Risk & Benefits Management, September, 2003 by Howard, Lisa S.

Standard & Poor's, in the latest bleak assessment to hit a string of reinsurers, downgraded Munich Re to "A-plus" from "double A-minus." The S&P downgrade, last week, followed Munich Re's half-yearly results, when the company reported an after-tax loss of 603 million euros ($656.1 million) due to a one-off tax charge of 1.4 billion euros ($1.5 billion).

Over the past year a number of rating agencies have lowered their evaluations of many of the giants of the reinsurance industry, including Paris-based SCOR and Zurich, Switzerland's Swiss Re. But, Munich Re said the S&P downgrade was "unjustified" and the reasons given for the measure were "unconvincing." The company pointed to the fact that the group's equity funds increased in the second quarter by...

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