Allianz AG plan to sell a 4 billion euros’ worth of exchangeable and subordinated bonds, including 1.6 billion euros of bonds convertible into Allianz shares and 1.2 billion euros of notes exchangeable into shares of Munich Re, Bayerische Motoren Werke AG or Siemens AG.

Allianz said in a statement that the company is taking ``advantage of currently attractive conditions in the capital markets’’ to improve its balance sheet, cutting devt and raising capital.

Allianz’ chief executive Michael Diekmann intends to bring down the company’s investments in German stocks to no more than 5% to protect it against volatility in equity markets.

The deal is expected to ``essentially strengthen the company’s capital position in the eyes of rating agencies,’’ according to Konrad Becker, an analyst at Merck Finck in Munich.