The group UAP Life has posted 453 million KES (4.5 million USD) in losses over the first ten months of the year 2015. Almost all of the 500 million KES (5 million USD) in capital recently injected by major shareholder Old Mutual has already been used. Following this announcement, the South African rating agency GCR has downgraded UAP Life’s rating to BBB+ with negative outlook.
The company, whose market share is 3.22%, is the third one in the market to be downgraded by GCR in a period of one month. This readjustment pinpoints the problem of capital adequacy of insurers nationwide. Experts reckon that staff anxiety has affected the performance of UAP Life whose staff members are under the fear of dismissal since their entry into the sphere of the South African giant. Old Mutual, which has recently acquired UAP Life, has its own life insurance company (Old Mutual Life) based in Kenya.