Bulletin: Lincoln National Corp. Rating Unaffected By Acquisition Announcement

NEW YORK (S&P Global Ratings) Jan. 19, 2018-- S&P Global Ratings said today that its ratings on Lincoln National Corp. and its core subsidiaries are unaffected by the announcement that Lincoln will acquire Liberty Life Assurance Co. of Boston (LLAC). Although we expect the acquisition to bolster Lincoln's market position in the group life and disability space, we also expect any meaningful improvement in earnings to take years, as the company reprices the LLAC book and grows the group insurance segment. The acquisition will be financed with a mix of debt and holding-company cash, partly offset by a reduction in share buy-backs. Following these actions, we expect Lincoln's overall capital adequacy to remain very strong and supportive of the rating,

...NEW YORK (S&P Global Ratings) Jan. 19, 2018-- S&P Global Ratings said today that its ratings on Lincoln National Corp. and its core subsidiaries are unaffected by the announcement that Lincoln will acquire Liberty Life Assurance Co. of Boston (LLAC). Although we expect the acquisition to bolster Lincoln's market position in the group life and disability space, we also expect any meaningful improvement in earnings to take years, as the company reprices the LLAC book and grows the group insurance segment. The acquisition will be financed with a mix of debt and holding-company cash, partly offset by a reduction in share buy-backs. Following these actions, we expect Lincoln's overall capital adequacy to remain very strong and supportive of the rating, with financial leverage in the 26%-27% range and fixed-charge coverage above 5x. Only a rating committee may determine a rating action and this report does not constitute a rating action....

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