NU Online News Service, Oct. 14, 2004, 6:01 a.m. EDT
Moody’s Investors Service, New York, has increased the insurance financial strength rating of 2 major life insurance units at Prudential Financial Inc., Newark, N.J.[@@]
The rating agency has increased the rating of Prudential Insurance Company of America to Aa3, from A1, and its Pruco Life Insurance Company unit to Aa3, from A1.
Moody’s also affirmed the A3 rating on the parent company’s senior unsecured debt and raised the rating on the senior unsecured debt at Prudential Insurance to A1, from A2.
The Prudential Insurance company “upgrade reflects the improvements to [Prudential Financial's] financial profile that have taken place over the recent past,” Robert Riegle and Ann Perry, Moody’s analysts, write in a comment on the rating moves.
The improvements include a safer mix of business, strong capital levels at the life operating companies and recent acquisitions of American Skandia Corp., Shelton, Conn., and a large retirement business once owned by CIGNA Corp., Philadelphia.