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March 5, 2008 |
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SCOTTISH RE: May Sell Life Reinsurance & Wealth Management Units Scottish Re Group Ltd. told The Royal Gazette that it may sell its international life reinsurance and wealth management units. According to The Gazette, Scottish Re wants to cut costs after suffering mortgage-related losses and a credit rating downgrade. Scottish Re told The Gazette that it is losing money from investments tied to subprime and "Alt-A" residential mortgages. A Jan. 31 downgrade by Standard & Poor's will also make it harder for the company to compete and to expand its core life reinsurance business, The Gazette says, citing Scottish Re. Scottish Re told The Gazette that it will continue concentrating on its North American life reinsurance business, "through strategic alliances or other means and cut costs to preserve capital and liquidity." Scottish Re said it set up a financial incentive program to keep "essential" employees, The Gazette adds. Scottish Re Group Ltd. -- http://www.scottishre.com/ -- is a global life reinsurance specialist. Scottish Re has operating businesses in Bermuda, Grand Cayman, Guernsey, Ireland, the United Kingdom, United States, and Singapore. Its flagship operating subsidiaries include Scottish Annuity & Life Insurance Company (Cayman) Ltd. and Scottish Re (US), Inc. Scottish Re Capital Markets, Inc., a member of Scottish Re Group Ltd., is a registered broker dealer that specializes in securitization of life insurance assets and liabilities. * * * As reported in the Troubled Company Reporter-Europe on Feb. 5, 2008, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services lowered its counterparty credit rating on Scottish Re Group Ltd. to 'B' from 'B+'. At the same time, it lowered its counterparty credit and financial strength ratings on Scottish Re's operating companies to 'BB' from 'BB+' and also lowered the ratings on all these companies' dependent unwrapped securitized deals by one notch. In addition, S&P placed the ratings on all these companies on CreditWatch with negative implications. As reported in the Troubled Company Reporter-Europe on Feb. 21, 2008, Moody's Investors Service placed Scottish Re Group Limited's Senior unsecured shelf of (P)Ba3; subordinate shelf of (P)B1; junior subordinate shelf of (P)B1; preferred stock of B2; and preferred stock shelf of (P)B2 ratings on review for downgrade. |
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