OREANDA-NEWS. December 28, 2011. Fitch Ratings has confirmed the rating of financial stability for OJSC SOGAZ at BB+. The company’s financial stability rating by the national scale has also beenconfirmed at AA(rus). The forecast on both ratings is Stable.

According to the agency’s official announcement, the ratings reflect the stability of the company’s capitalization with adjustments for the risks associated with decrease in profitability in 2010, despite the fact that the company’s business continues to grow dynamically and that SOGAZ counts on capital growth to result from increased profits. As before , the leading market positions of the insurance company and its long-standing records of stable profitability played a role in the ratings.

Fitch continues to view the underwriting experience which SOGAZ has gained in the key sector of corporate insurance as a positive factor. The agency believes that SOGAZ will be able to make profit from underwriting as it did before, at least as long as the company keeps its current market position.

The agency’s analysts also believe that the introduction of liability insurance for operators of hazardous manufacturing facilities as a new form of obligatory insurance in 2012 will have a positive effect on the company’s underwriting performance. According to the agency, SOGAZ is very likely to become one of the key players in the sector.

Fitch last revised the company’s rating in November 2010, raising it from BB" (forecast Positive) to BB+ (forecast Stable). In June 2011 Standard & Poor's raised SOGAZ’s long-term ratings (contractor credit rating and financial stability rating) from ВВ+ to ВВВ-. At present, SOGAZ is the only Russian insurance company whose financial stability has been confirmed by two international rating agencies at once.

The SOGAZ Insurance Group includes insurance companies OJSC SOGAZ, LLC IC SOGAZ-Agro (formerly LLC IC Neftepolis), OJSC Insurance Company SOGAZ-Med (formerly OJSC Gazprommedstrakh), LLC IC SOGAZ-Life, OJSC IC SOGAZ-SHEKSNA, OJSC MIC Sheksna-M, asset management company OJSC Leader, and health service company LLC Gazprommedservice. Currently the group’s regional network includes over 600 subdivisions and sales outlets across Russia and a representative office in Kazakhstan. SOGAZ has been assigned reliability rating A++ by Expert RA, as well as international financial stability ratings BB+ (Standard & Poor’s, forecast Stable) and BB+ (Fitch Ratings, forecast Stable).