{"id":12409,"date":"2012-10-19T07:22:48","date_gmt":"2012-10-19T07:22:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.atidi.africa\/sp-reaffirms-atis-astable-rating\/"},"modified":"2012-10-19T07:22:48","modified_gmt":"2012-10-19T07:22:48","slug":"sp-reaffirms-atis-astable-rating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.atidi.africa\/ja\/sp-reaffirms-atis-astable-rating\/","title":{"rendered":"S&P Reaffirms ATI\u2019s \u2018A\/Stable\u2019 Rating"},"content":{"rendered":"

S&P Reaffirms ATI<\/a>\u2019s \u2018A\/Stable\u2019 Rating – Maintaining its Status as the Highest Rated African Insurer<\/p>\n

NAIROBI, 19 October 2012 \u2013<\/strong> International rating agency Standard & Poor\u2019s (S&P) reaffirmed the African Trade Insurance Agency\u2019s (ATI<\/a>) (A\/Stable) credit rating citing “very strong capitalization, strong financial flexibility and investments, and strong liquidity”. The rating reinforces ATI\u2019s status as Africa\u2019s highest rated insurer and second highest rated financial institution.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to note that ATI\u2019s renewed rating is significant for a unique reason, notes ATI\u2019s Chief Executive Officer, George Otieno. ATI operates in a region where a majority of its member countries have ratings that are less than investment grade, “our rating provides a benefit to these countries, who can essentially offer the ATI rating in place of their own when they are trying to attract investors \u2013 this is essentially the function of an ATI-backed guarantee.”<\/p>\n

Due in part to a disciplined management strategy, which the report refers to as “clear and focused”, ATI has been able to maintain an investment grade rating for the fifth consecutive year – despite the potential impact of negative economic factors such as the 2008 global financial crisis and ensuing challenges in the Eurozone.<\/p>\n

ATI\u2019s capital adequacy is the strongest component, being rated “extremely strong” based on a total shareholder\u2019s equity of $151 million (at 30 June, 2012), representing 28% of gross and 56% of net outstanding underwriting<\/a> commitments, which is well within the range of ATI\u2019s internal underwriting<\/a> benchmark.<\/p>\n

On financial flexibility, ATI received a “strong” rating supported by a preferred creditor arrangement with its African member countries. Under the agreements, any political risk losses caused by a member are fully recoverable from their government. This position, which acts as a shield against losses, has been one of ATI\u2019s most important assets helping it attract international insurers and other partners to the continent and ultimately providing over $7 billion worth of support to trade and investments in Africa over the past decade.<\/p>\n

The report also outlines key risks to ATI\u2019s “Stable” outlook, such as high industry and economic risks in the region, and a withdrawal of member support and capital. ATI is able to balance both risks with a strong enterprise risk management system which has “appropriate controls for its key underwriting and investment risks”. ATI\u2019s risk appetite is focused on underwriting political risk in its member countries with the commercial business limited to 30% of net exposures. ATI is only exposed to a maximum single net loss of $15 million for political risks and $5 million for credit (commercial) risks.<\/p>\n

According to Standard & Poor\u2019s, credit ratings are forward-looking opinions about credit risk. S&P\u2019s credit ratings express the agency\u2019s opinion about the ability and willingness of an issuer, such as a corporation or state or city government, to meet its financial obligations in full and on time.<\/p>\n

Ratings are provided by organizations such as Standard & Poor\u2019s, commonly called credit rating agencies, which specialize in evaluating credit risk.<\/p>\n

Each agency applies its own methodology in measuring creditworthiness and uses a specific rating scale to publish its ratings opinions. Typically, ratings are expressed as letter grades that range, for example, from \u2018AAA\u2019 to \u2018D\u2019 to communicate the agency\u2019s opinion of relative level of credit risk.<\/p>\n

Standard & Poor\u2019s Rating Guide<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Rating<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n

Definitions<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

AAA<\/td>\nExtremely strong capacity to meet financial commitments. Highest Rating.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
AA<\/td>\nVery strong capacity to meet financial commitments.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
A<\/td>\nStrong capacity to meet financial commitments, but somewhat susceptible to adverse economic conditions and changes in circumstances.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
BBB<\/td>\nAdequate capacity to meet financial commitments, but more subject to adverse economic conditions.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
BBB-<\/td>\nConsidered lowest investment grade by market participants.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
BB+<\/td>\nConsidered highest speculative grade by market participants.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
BB<\/td>\nLess vulnerable in the near-term but faces major ongoing uncertainties to adverse business, financial and economic conditions.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
B<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/td>\n

More vulnerable to adverse business, financial and economic conditions but currently has the capacity to meet financial commitments.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CCC<\/td>\nCurrently vulnerable and dependent on favorable business, financial and economic conditions to meet financial commitments.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CC<\/td>\nCurrently highly vulnerable.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
C<\/td>\nCurrently highly vulnerable obligations and other defined circumstances.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
D<\/td>\nPayment default on financial commitments.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Note: Ratings from \u2018AA\u2019 to \u2018CCC\u2019 may be modified by the addition of a plus (+) or minus (-) sign to show relative standing within the major rating categories.<\/p>\n

Specific ratings are also available from Standard & Poor\u2019s Ratings Desk by emailing ratings_request@standardandpoors.com
\nFor the full S&P analysis on ATI\u2019s rating<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

S&P Reaffirms ATI\u2019s \u2018A\/Sta […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[970],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-970"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atidi.africa\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atidi.africa\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atidi.africa\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atidi.africa\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atidi.africa\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.atidi.africa\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12409\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atidi.africa\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atidi.africa\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atidi.africa\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}