RSA INSURANCE GROUP PLC
London Stock Exchange: RSA Meeting Date: 5/09/2014
Despite former CEO Simon Lee’s public assurance in early November that RSA’s “capital position remains robust”, the Company was forced to announce a £775 million rights issue only three months later. Mr. Lee’s resignation in December 2013 came in the wake of allegations of profit overstatements at the Company’s Irish business, which led to the suspension and subsequent dismissal of three senior Irish executives, and the revelation that the Company’s capital position wasn’t as strong as had been claimed. Mr. Lee’s successor, Stephen Hester, joins the Company having led a similar recovery effort at part-nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland plc. The Company’s recapitalisation programme has been spurred by, among other things, Standard & Poor’s recent lowering of the Company’s credit rating from A to A-, its lowest since 2002. As at the end of the 2013 fiscal year, the Company held capital to the value of £200 million, being approximately 10% more capital than required by regulators (albeit down from 90% at the beginning of the year), as compared with surpluses of at least £1.5 billion reportedly held by other large, listed UK insurance companies. In addition to the proposed rights issue, the Company has also elected not to pay a final dividend for the 2013 fiscal year.
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