{"id":31651,"date":"2015-12-18T00:51:03","date_gmt":"2015-12-18T05:51:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/prefblog.com\/?p=31651"},"modified":"2015-12-18T00:51:03","modified_gmt":"2015-12-18T05:51:03","slug":"pow-dbrs-downgrades-to-pfd-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prefblog.com\/?p=31651","title":{"rendered":"POW: DBRS Downgrades to Pfd-2"},"content":{"rendered":"

DBRS has announced<\/a> that it:<\/p>\n

has today downgraded Power Corporation of Canada\u2019s (POW or the Company) Senior Debt rating to \u201cA\u201d from A (high) and its Preferred Shares ratings to Pfd-2 from Pfd-2 (high) due to the application of the new insurance methodology. All trends are Stable. All the rating actions are detailed in the table below. The rating actions taken today follow the publication of DBRS\u2019s new methodology, \u201cGlobal Methodology for Rating Life and P&C Insurance Companies and Insurance Organizations\u201d (December 2015) (Global Insurance Methodology).<\/p>\n

The downgrade of POW\u2019s ratings results from the application of the Global Insurance Methodology. POW\u2019s main subsidiary is Power Financial Corporation (PWF), which in turn owns Great-West Lifeco Inc. (GWO), the greatest contributor to earnings and overall strength of PWF. Hence, the Global Insurance Methodology used to rate GWO is by extension the primary methodology for rating POW.<\/p>\n

The ratings for POW are one notch below PWF\u2019s ratings under the holding company criteria due to structural subordination. Additionally, PWF\u2019s rating has been set at the same level as GWO\u2019s Issuer Rating. See the press releases for Power Financial Corporation, \u201cDBRS Downgrades Power Financial Corporation\u2019s Issuer Rating to A (high) from AA (low); Confirms Great West Life Assurance Co at AA\u201d, \u201cDBRS Confirms The Great West Life Assurance Company Ratings at AA; Downgrades Great-West Lifeco\u2019s Debentures to A (high) from AA (low)\u201d, for more information.<\/p>\n

POW is an investment holding company controlled by the Desmarais family with PWF as its major holding. Other interests include Square Victoria Communications Group, Power Energy, the Sagard investment funds and other investments. POW benefits from a strong capital position, high liquidity and prudent decision-making with an emphasis on conservativeness and integrated risk management. Negative ratings pressure may arise if the subsidiaries suffer extended declines in profitability or more unlikely, if the Company deviates significantly from its value-based approach to leadership and away from its successful operational track record. POW\u2019s ratings could also be negatively impacted by evidence of governance issues. Conversely, an upgrade of PWF could potentially benefit POW\u2019s rating.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The new methodology is discussed in the post DBRS Releases and Applies New Insurance Company Methodology<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Affected issues are: POW.PR.A, POW.PR.B, POW.PR.C, POW.PR.D, POW.PR.F and POW.PR.G.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DBRS has announced that it: has today downgraded Power Corporation of Canada\u2019s (POW or the Company) Senior Debt rating to \u201cA\u201d from A (high) and its Preferred Shares ratings to Pfd-2 from Pfd-2 (high) due …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-issue-comments"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prefblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prefblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prefblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prefblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prefblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/prefblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31651\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prefblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prefblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prefblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}