TEXT-S&P Lowers QBE General Insurance Rtg To ‘A’; Outlook Stable

The regulator has approved the sale of Hang Seng General Insurance to the QBE Insurance group.

Hang Seng General Insurance has been renamed QBE General Insurance (Hong Kong) and we consider it a strategically important subsidiary of the QBE group.

We are lowering our counterparty credit rating on QBE General Insurance (Hong Kong) to ‘A’ from ‘A+’.

The stable outlook reflects our views that QBE GI HK will remain as a strategically important subsidiary QBE group.

Rating Action

On July 13, 2012, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services lowered its local currency long-term counterparty credit rating and insurer financial strength rating on QBE General Insurance (Hong Kong) Ltd. (QBE GI HK; formerly Hang Seng General Insurance [Hong Kong) Co. Ltd.) to ‘A’ from ‘A+’. The outlook is stable. At the same time, we lowered the long-term Greater China scale rating on the company to ‘cnAA+/–‘ from ‘cnAAA’. We also removed the ratings from CreditWatch with negative implications, where they were first placed on March 8, 2012.