S&P Revises AGS Insurance Co. Outlook to Negative.Business Editors LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 13, 2002 Standard & Poor's Ratings Services Ratings Service A company, such as Moody's or Standard & Poor's, that rates various debt and preferred stock issues for safety of payment of principal, interest, or dividends. said today that it revised its outlook on 'A+' rated AGS AGS American Geriatrics Society. Insurance Co. Ltd. (AGS) to negative from stable as a direct result of it revising the outlook on AGS's parent company, Diageo Diageo plc (LSE: DGE, NYSE: DEO) is the largest multinational beer, wine and spirits company in the world. The company was formed in 1997 from the merger of Guinness plc and Grand Metropolitan plc and is listed on the London, New York and Irish stock exchanges. PLC (Diageo), to negative. "The ratings on AGS are significantly influenced by the corporate credit rating on its parent because AGS is an integral part of the group's risk-management strategy," explained Standard & Poor's credit analyst Peter McClean. Today's rating action on Diageo reflected the delay in improvement--beyond the expected date of June 30, 2003--in the group's financial profile to a level in line with the ratings. This delay is attributable to Diageo's shareholder focus and to the lower-than-expected proceeds received from the disposal of its Burger King fast-food division. Despite the outlook revision, Standard & Poor's still considers AGS extremely well capitalized Capitalized Recorded in asset accounts and then depreciated or amortized, as is appropriate for expenditures for items with useful lives longer than one year. , with a risk-adjusted capital adequacy ratio Capital adequacy ratio (CAR), also called Capital to Risk (Weighted) Assets Ratio (CRAR)[], is a ratio of a bank's capital to its risk. National regulators track a bank's CAR to ensure that it can absorb a reasonable amount of loss. in excess of 300% in 2002. Another strength is the company's conservative, low-risk, highly liquid investment portfolio. Complete ratings information is available to subscribers of RatingsDirect, Standard & Poor's Web-based credit analysis system, at www.ratingsdirect.com. All ratings affected by this rating action can be found on Standard & Poor's public Web site at www.standardandpoors.com; under Fixed Income in the left navigation bar A set of buttons or graphic images typically in a row or column used as a central point that link you to major topic sections on a Web site. If the navigation bar is a single graphic image with multiple selections, it is known as an imagemap. See imagemap. , select Credit Ratings Actions. Copyright 2002, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services |
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