Standard & Poor's has confirmed that its ratings and outlook on Royal & Sun Alliance (R&SA) are not affected by the group's decision to cut its share dividend.
Reporting its 2002 results, R&SA's group operating profits increased to £226m, from £16m in 2001.
R&SA reported a £940m net loss, driven by a pretax £653m goodwill write-down. However the goodwill charge does not affect Standard & Poor's assessment of R&SA's capital adequacy, it said.
It added that the downgrade of R&SA in November 2002 was based on the expectation that capital and earnings targets for 2002 would not be achieved. Today's results support this rating action, it said.
