MetLife, Inc. (NYSE: MET), which is the largest life insurer in the U.S., got its start 140 years ago. But the recent couple weeks may have been the toughest as the stock price has plunged.It seems MetLife's woes have just started, though, as the company announced Tuesday it has withdrawn its 2008 earnings estimates. As for Q3, the company expects operating profits of $600 million to $675 million.
At the same time, the company wants to sell 75 million shares to bolster its capital (obviously, this is something that's pretty dilutive in the current environment).
Interestingly enough, MetLife is feeling the pain from heavy investments in alternatives such as hedge funds and private equity. What's more, MetLife holds positions in losers such as Washington Mutual and Lehman Brothers.
Of course, MetLife is not alone. If anything, major insurers have been quite aggressive with alternative investments. Just take Hartford Financial Services Group Inc (NYSE: HIG), which recently pre-announced weak results and raised $2.5 billion from Allianz. This firm too has had to take charges for its alternative investments.
MetLife shares are trading down 6.4% in pre-market trade.
Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook
and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements
. He is also the founder of BizEquity, a valuation website
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-08-2008 @ 12:44PM
Chuck Bressler said...
While watching the debate last nite, neither candidate said anything about taking care of all those CEO's that took millions of dollars of retirement funds of people. I believe one of them should have said when they got elected they would go after them and fine them and get that money back and distribute to the people that lost their investments. These people should go to jail and serve time and big time. They should impeach Chris Dodd and Barney Frank for starters and send them off to jail and take all the money they stole off the general public. and give it back to the people. We need to clean house in Washington and I believe Gov. Palin has the right idea. she will just need help from some of the honest people in Washington. Very disappointed with the debate last nite.