(Alliance News) - Just Group PLC's outlook was described as stable by ratings agency Fitch who affirmed its strong credit rating, the company said on Thursday.
The financial services company was given a long term issuer default rating of an A, as was the firm's subsidiary Just Retirement Ltd. Just Retirement also received an issuer financial strength score of an A+.
Fitch said the ratings reflected Just Group's "strong business profile, earnings and investment risk" but said the company's strengths are offset by its "concentrated exposure to a single, albeit very important, segment of the UK life insurance sector."
The group slumped to a pretax loss of GBP85.5 million in 2018 after amassing a GBP181.3 profit the year before. The decline in 2018 was blamed on Brexit uncertainty.
Just Group increased its underlying profit in 2018 by 31% to GBP315 million though Fitch said this was offset by increased costs.
David Richardson remains the group's interim chief executive as the group are yet to appoint a permanent replacement for the retired Rodney Cook.
The firm will release interim results for the six months ended June 30 on September 4.
Shares in Just Group were 1.8% down at 54.75 pence on Thursday afternoon in London.
Just Group (JUST)