ZIMMERER DOES NOT FORESEE ITALIAN DEFAULT

Maximilian Zimmerer, who will take over as chief financial officer at Allianz on June 1, does not see any default risk from Italian sovereign bonds, he has said in an interview with German newspaper Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung. "I even think the interest rates are highly attractive", he added. Mr Zimmerer also said that he saw German equities, with the exception of banks, as being favourably valued.