In an expected but unfavourable development, Standard & Poor's yesterday downgraded the rating of South Canterbury Finance, adding another obstacle in the path of survival.The appointment in the last week of outside managers to control the business affairs of the firm's founder, and until recently "president for life", Alan Hubbard, is the trigger for the S&P review.S&P's downgraded the long-term rating of SCF to B- from B+ with a CreditWatch Negative outlook. The short-term rating was downgraded to C from B.In an industry where first small and then seemingly substantial finance companies succumbed to the flight of investor confidence - an episode stretching back to 2006 - South Canterbury trades on.For how much longer is a question the firm's management might find difficult to answer, but they are working on solutions.For now, the message from the chief executive officer, Sandy Maier, is that the firm is solvent.Asked, by email, yesterday if the firm was "well placed to repay all the deposits due for repayment by June 30" Maier wrote "yes".Maier's efforts for SCF are valiant and may not succeed, but few can argue that even surviving to this day would have been impossible if not for his vision.The company picked Maier, a turnaround veteran with 35 years' experience, as CEO in December 2009.As his first task he pulled together the documents to apply for the extended Crown retail guarantee."The criterion was quite clear and we had the BB plus rating," said Maier. "The world is uncertain and we should apply for the guarantee before anything else, I said."Maier couldn't have been more correct in his prediction. Times were indeed uncertain, well-proven by the fact that before the rating could get approved the company received a downgrade that left it at the minimum rating that would qualify for the extension. The rating at the time of application mattered, and thus Treasury approved the guarantee extension.A small delay would have proved costly because within a couple of months of receiving the approval, the company was downgraded below the minimum eligibility rating.The guarantee was important because that was the only way to attract the investments the company so desperately needed to survive."The guarantee has been enormously helpful," Maier said, adding that out of around 20,000 depositors the company has heard back from about half about extending or wanting to extend deposits. It thus managed to get rollovers of existing debentures and fresh investments and extend its maturity profile.A steady stream of debentures inflows also meant the company didn't have to quicken its asset sale plans. It did receive a serious joint bid for assets of Helicopters and Scales, but the offer was too low and much lower than the written down value, according to Maier.