FWD Group Holdings Limited (“FWD Group” or “the company”) announced today that it was assigned investment grade credit ratings from Fitch Ratings Limited (“Fitch”) and Moody’s Investors Service Limited (“Moody’s”). These are the company’s inaugural credit ratings.

Fitch assigned the company a long-term issuer default rating of BBB+, with a stable outlook while Moody’s assigned an issuer rating of Baa2, with a positive outlook.

Fitch affirmed FWD Group’s core life insurance operating entities’ insurer financial strength (IFS) rating of A, while Moody’s assigned a notional insurance financial strength rating of A3, to the FWD Group’s major life insurance operating entities.

“Achieving investment grade credit ratings at the FWD Group level is a testament to our strong financial position, healthy business profile and disciplined approach to growth,” said Huynh Thanh Phong, Group Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of FWD Group.

“We’re celebrating our 10th anniversary this year and this is another vote of confidence in our strategy and the pan-Asian insurance company that we've built. Our ability to make the insurance journey simpler, faster, and smoother for customers helps enable us to capture the significant opportunities in Asia’s underserved life insurance market.”

Following a recently completed reorganisation, FWD Group Holdings Limited is now expected to be the principal issuing entity for future debt issuances for the FWD Group, as well as the sole entity through which equity investors hold their ownership interests.

“Our investment grade credit ratings will allow us to more effectively and efficiently access the credit markets through FWD Group Holdings Limited as we continue to execute our growth strategy,” said Jon Nielsen, Managing Director and Group Chief Financial Officer of FWD Group.

FWD Group Holdings Limited has also replaced and become the issuer under the notes and capital securities issued by FWD Limited and FWD Group Limited, which are listed on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited. This development concludes the company’s previously announced bond consent solicitation process to simplify the FWD Group’s corporate structure and streamline treasury functions.

In addition to assigning the inaugural ratings of FWD Group Holdings Limited, Fitch removed the rating watch evolving from FWD Life Insurance Company (Bermuda) Limited’s A IFS rating. The outlook is stable. Fitch has also upgraded Japan-based FWD Life Insurance Company Limited’s IFS rating to A with a stable outlook (from BBB+ on rating watch positive), and PT FWD Insurance Indonesia’s national IFS rating to A+(idn) with a stable outlook (from A(idn) on rating watch positive).

Moody’s changed the outlook of FWD Life Insurance Company (Bermuda) Limited to positive from stable.

About FWD Group

FWD Group is a pan-Asian life insurance business with more than 10 million customers across 10 markets, including some of the fastest-growing insurance markets in the world. FWD reached its 10-year anniversary in 2023. The company is focused on making the insurance journey simpler, faster and smoother, with innovative propositions and easy-to-understand products, supported by digital technology. Through this customer-led approach, FWD is committed to changing the way people feel about insurance.

For more information, please visit www.fwd.com