Societa Cattolica di Assicurazione

The positive outlook reflects both possible further integration of Cattolica in Generali and the positive outlook on Italy, which may benefit the creditworthiness of Generali. We could upgrade Cattolica to 'A' within the next 24 months if there were news of Cattolica's swift integration into the Generali group, for example via the announcement of a prospective merger of Cattolica with one of Generali's core operating entities. In its prospectus of the public takeover offer Generali had indicated it will explore several options regarding Cattolica's integration. We could also upgrade Cattolica if we considered that an upgrade of Italy, if one were to occur, would benefit the creditworthiness of the Generali group. We could revise our outlook on Cattolica to stable

...Positive rating action after the conclusion of Cattolica acquisition by Generali. On Nov. 4, 2021, Assicurazioni Generali SpA (Generali) announced it had reached 84.475% share ownership of Societa Cattolica Assicurazione SpA on the closing of its takeover offer. We now consider Cattolica to be of highly strategic importance to Generali and believe the combined group would be resilient to a potential default of Italy (unsolicited; ###/Positive/A-2). We assume the Generali Group could be rated up to three notches above the rating on Italy, reflecting the group's diversified sources of earnings generation, both by country and between life and property/casualty (P/C) insurance business lines. A potential early exit of the joint-venture with Banco BPM could weaken Cattolica's position in the Italian life market. On April 15, 2021, Banco BPM and Cattolica signed an agreement defining the conditions of an early exit option, enabling the termination of the partnership to occur between June 30,...

Full Report