Rating agency affirms strength of Munich Re

Rating agency A.M. Best says it will maintain the “A-Double-Plus (Superior)” rating given to Munich Re and its operating subsidiaries, despite the 238 million loss reported by the group for the first quarter of this year. A.M. Best believes that the capitalization of Munich Re remains “superior” while the group has achieved material improvement in underwriting on its non-life business.A.M. Best notes that Munich Re was able to reduce its combined ratio to 96.8% by the end of the first quarter of this year compared with the 101.7% reported for the same period the year previous. The rating agency says it will continue to monitor Munich Re’s ability to achieve its 2003 operating performance targets of maintaining the combined ratio at below 100% and growth of 10% in earnings.