June 14, 2003	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 13, 1424

KARACHI, June 13: JCR-VIS credit rating company Ltd. has assigned an insurer financial strength (IFS) rating of “A” to Security General Insurance Ltd. The outlook on this rating is stable, says a press release.

The rating takes into consideration strong sponsor support enjoyed by SGI, being part of the Nishat Group, as indicated by past capital injections to strengthen the shareholders’ fund. Further, SGI’s reinsurers mainly comprise highly rated international companies.

SGI’s majority investment is concentrated in MCB shares, a group company, mitigated by the fact that the company is a strong player in the banking sector.

NICL: JCR-VIS credit rating company has initiated assigning unsolicited ratings in the country. Unsolicited ratings are the ratings based on public information and are intended to be a broad indicator of credit quality and financial strength, says a press release.

Therefore, a rating category is assigned to the institution and is followed by a “p” subscript denoting public information. The assigned rating is not modified by a plus or minus sign and thereby does not specify the relative credit standing within a rating category. Outlook is not assigned to these ratings.

JCR-VIS says it has assigned an unsolicited Insurer Financial Strength (IFS) rating of AA(p) to National Insurance Company Ltd.

Being the sole insurer of public sector properties NICL has a captive customer base. However, retaining customers on the privatization list and diversification of the customer base poses a great challenge for the company. “NICL’s underwriting and investment operations have been profitable since the company’s inception” which has helped strengthen its equity base and increased its risk absorption capacity.