S&P leaves Skandia at the gates

The ratings agency says despite improvements over the past six months in areas such as sales and earnings growth, and OM’s ability to retain key senior Skandia managers, there remain questions over capitalisation of the business. “Standard & Poor's believes there is still some uncertainty around Skandia’s prospective capitalisation under Old Mutual’s ownership that warrants a continuation of the negative outlook at the time of the rating withdrawal,” it says in its final note on the business. The final long-term ratings on Skandia read ‘A-‘ for its long-term counterparty credit, and ‘BB...