Standard & Poor’s Cuts Aegon’s Ratings
New York, April 8 - Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said today that it lowered its counterparty credit rating on AEGON N.V. to 'A+/A-1' from 'AA-/A-1+' because of Standard & Poor's view that future absolute earnings will be less strong over the short to medium term based on higher credit provisioning, tighter credit spreads, and reduced fee income on variable and unit-linked funds under management. Standard & Poor's also said that it lowered its long-term counterparty credit and financial strength ratings on the principal operating companies of the group in Europe and North America to 'AA' from 'AA+'. In addition, Standard & Poor's assigned its 'AA' long-term counterparty credit and financial strength ratings to Stonebridge Life Insurance Co., which is one of AEGON's U.S. operating companies. Standard & Poor's also withdrew its 'AA+' financial strength rating on Transamerica Life Insurance Co. of NY because it no longer exists, having been merged into another of the rated AEGON operating companies. Standard & Poor's also lowered its long-term counterparty credit rating on Transamerica Finance Corp. to 'BBB+' from 'A-' based on the downgrade of the ultimate parent, AEGON. Standard & Poor's affirmed the 'A-2' short-term counterparty credit rating on Transamerica Finance Corp. The outlook on all these companies is stable.
Published on April 8, 2003
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