Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services yesterday assigned ratings to the Manufacturers Life Insurance Co.’s $1.5 billion debt and preferred stock shelf registration.

S&P says that this shelf has been filed in part to replace the recently expired $5.0 billion debt, subordinated debt, and preferred stock shelf that had been in place for Manulife Financial and Manufacturers Life. The ratings and outlooks remain unchanged on Manulife Financial and its subsidiaries. The outlook on Manufacturers Life is stable; the outlook on John Hancock is positive.

“The insurer financial strength ratings on Manulife/John Hancock’s primary operating subsidiaries reflect the group’s very strong and geographically diversified business positions in Canada, the U.S., and Asia; extremely strong capitalization; solid operating performance; and an accomplished management team,” said Standard & Poor’s credit analyst Donald Chu. “The combined organization now represents one of the top-three insurance organizations in Canada, one of the top-five in North America, and one of the top-10 globally, as measured by assets.”

Partially offsetting these strengths are the operational and integration risk that are associated with the John Hancock acquisition; the higher risk profile of John Hancock’s institutional spread-based businesses, long-term care business, and bond investment portfolio; and the decrease in the company’s quality of capital due to the goodwill and intangibles that were created by this transaction, S&P said.

The stable outlook on Manufacturers Life and its directly held operating subsidiaries reflects Standard & Poor’s expectation that the group will continue to maintain its track record of solid earnings performance, very strong level of capital and reserves, and manageable asset quality.

The positive outlook on John Hancock’s U.S. operating insurance companies reflects S&P’s view that as the acquired insurance operating companies become more closely integrated, Standard & Poor’s could eventually view them as core subsidiaries, at which point, the ratings would be equalized with those on Manufacturers Life. The positive outlook on Manulife Financial reflects the ratings upside of John Hancock’s operating insurance companies.