S&P assigns gcAA+ rating on Wala’a Insurance with stable outlook

S&P Global Ratings has assigned a ‘gcAA+’ long-term GCC regional scale financial strength credit rating to Wala’a Cooperative Insurance Company with a stable outlook.

The outlook reflects the company’s risk-based capital adequacy, satisfactory business risk profile, and overall upper-adequate financial risk profile, the insurer said in a statement on Saudi bourse (Tadawul).

“Despite its modest size relative to global insurance standards, Wala'a's capitalization is extremely strong, with shareholders' funds of SAR 465 million as of end-March 2017, and net income of SAR 32.2 million for the same period,” the ratings agency said in a separate statement.

The 'BBB+' global scale financial strength rating on Wala'a is unaffected, the statement added.

The GCC regional scale rating is derived by mapping from S&P’s 'BBB+' global scale long-term local currency financial strength rating on Wala'a.