Western & Southern Jumps 55 Spots, Ranks No. 421 on Fortune 500

CINCINNATI, Ohio, May 17 -- The Western and Southern Financial Group, a life insurance company, issued the following news release:

The 2019 Fortune 500 list released May 16 by Fortune magazine ranks Western & Southern Financial Group No. 421 (up 55 spots from No. 476 in 2018), with $7.205 billion in revenue for 2018.

Our company is ranked seventh among mutual life and health insurance companies and 18th among the combined mutual and stock life and health insurance companies on the 2019 list.

Western & Southern is one of 20 Ohio companies and eight from the Greater Cincinnati area to make the list -- more than any other city in Ohio, Indiana or Kentucky.

The eight local companies on the 2019 list (2018 ranking noted in parentheses) are:

* Kroger 20 (17)

* Procter & Gamble 45 (42)

* Macy's 118 (120)

* Fifth Third Bancorp 384 (366)

* Western & Southern Financial Group 421 (476)

* American Financial Group 427 (413)

* AK Steel 443 (461)

* Cintas 459 (500)

Fortune uses revenue reported on a statutory accounting basis to rank companies for inclusion on the Fortune 500 list. Because of that, the numbers differ from the GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) numbers typically cited in our annual report.

As we celebrated our 130th anniversary, we finished 2018 with record results in total revenue, life and health premiums, annuity sales and net income. We welcomed Gerber Life Insurance Company to our organization. We remain one of the strongest life insurance groups in the world. Our net worth at the end of April 2019 was $9.9 billion, and our capital-to-asset ratio of 18.2 percent is more than double the average capital-to-asset ratio of the 15 largest publicly traded life insurers doing business in the U.S.