Ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR
St.Gallen, 15 September 2021

S&P Global Ratings (S&P) has upgraded Helvetia Group's rating to 'A+' and assigned a stable outlook. The strong business position, underpinned by the successful addition of Spanish insurance group Caser, sound profitability and Helvetia's solid capitalisation were key drivers of the rating decision.

The rating agency S&P Global Ratings (S&P) has upgraded the rating of Helvetia Group to 'A+' and assigned a stable outlook. The positive rating action by S&P recognises Helvetia's strong business position, where the European foothold has been further strengthened by the recent acquisition of Spanish insurance group Caser. The Group's focus on solid capitalisation as well as Helvetia's sound underlying profitability, particularly in the non-life business, further contributed to the assessment.

Annelis Lüscher Hämmerli, Group CFO at Helvetia, is pleased with the S&P decision: "The upgrade reflects Helvetia's ambition to continuously expand its strategic positioning with the segments Switzerland, Europe and Specialty Markets while maintaining a focus on strong capitalisation levels." Adding further: "The rating acknowledges, amongst others, also the Group's ability to integrate large operations swiftly and it underlines Helvetia's proven underwriting capabilities."

The rating upgrade benefits the following rated entities of Helvetia Group:
Helvetia Swiss Life Insurance Company Ltd - to 'A+'
Helvetia Swiss Insurance Company Ltd - to 'A+'
Helvetia Assurances SA - to 'A+' on a guaranteed basis 
Helvetia Swiss Insurance Company in Liechtenstein Ltd - to 'A' being highly strategic important to the Helvetia Group

About the Helvetia Group
In over 160 years, the Helvetia Group has grown from a number of Swiss and foreign insurance companies into a successful international insurance group. Helvetia is one of the leading all-line insurers in its home market of Switzerland. With the countries Germany, Italy, Austria and Spain, which have been combined to form the Market Area Europe, the company has a second strong pillar. With its Specialty Markets market area, Helvetia is also present in France and in selected regions worldwide. Some of its investment and financing activities are managed through subsidiaries and fund companies in Luxembourg. The Group is headquartered in St.Gallen, Switzerland.
Helvetia is active in the life and non-life business, and also offers customised specialty lines and reinsurance cover. Its business activities focus on retail customers as well as small and medium-sized companies and larger corporates. With some 11,600 employees, the company provides services to more than 7 million customers. With a business volume of CHF 9.71 billion, Helvetia generated an IFRS result after tax of CHF 281.7 million in financial year 2020. The registered shares of Helvetia Holding are traded on the SIX Swiss Exchange under the symbol HELN.

Cautionary note
This document was prepared by Helvetia Group and may not be copied, altered, offered, sold or otherwise distributed to any other person by any recipient without the consent of Helvetia Group. The German version of this document is decisive and binding. Versions of the document in other languages are made available purely for information purposes. Although all reasonable effort has been made to ensure that the facts stated herein are correct and the opinions contained herein are fair and reasonable, where any information and statistics are quoted from any external source such information or statistics should not be interpreted as having been adopted or endorsed as accurate by Helvetia Group. Neither Helvetia Group nor any of its directors, officers, employees and advisors nor any other person shall have any liability whatsoever for loss howsoever arising, directly or indirectly, from any use of this information. The facts and information contained in this document are as up to date as is reasonably possible but may be subject to revision in the future. Neither Helvetia Group nor any of its directors, officers, employees or advisors nor any other person makes any representation or warranty, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained in this document.
This document may contain projections or other forward-looking statements related to Helvetia Group which by their very nature involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, and there is a risk that predictions, forecasts, projections and other outcomes described or implied in forward-looking statements will not be achieved. We caution you that a number of important factors could cause results to differ materially from the plans, objectives, expectations, estimates and intentions expressed in such forward-looking statements. These factors include: (1) changes in general economic conditions, in particular in the markets in which we operate; (2) the performance of financial markets; (3) changes in interest rates; (4) changes in currency exchange rates; (5) changes in laws and regulations, including accounting policies or practices; (6) risks associated with implementing our business strategies; (7) the frequency, magnitude and general development of insured events; (8) mortality and morbidity rates; (9) policy renewal and lapse rates as well as (10), the realisation of economies of scale as well as synergies. We caution you that the foregoing list of important factors is not exhaustive; when evaluating forward-looking statements, you should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties. All forward-looking statements are based on information available to Helvetia Group on the date of its publication and Helvetia Group assumes no obligation to update such statements unless otherwise required by applicable law.