LONDON (Standard&Poor's CreditWire) May 4, 2000--Following the announcement that the Munich Reinsurance Group (Munich Re) and Allianz Group plan to reduce their mutual cross-shareholdings to 20% from 25% over the next three years, Standard&Poor's today affirmed its triple-'A' counterparty credit and insurer financial strength ratings on entities of both groups. The outlooks are stable. See ratings list below. The respective parent companies of the two Munich-based groups have each held stakes of 25% or more in the other for many years. Under German corporate law, 25% shareholders have the power to veto changes in a company's statutes, although neither group has ever considered using this power. Today's announcement, therefore, clarifies to the market that the two
