The American Life Insurance Co. - a unit of
MetLife Inc.
(
MET
) - recently received $160 million after winning a $190 million
tax case in a Tokyo court according to media reports. The amount
received includes interest and penalties.
However, MetLife will have to transfer most of the amount to
American International Group, Inc.
(
AIG
) as the tax case was related to unrealized foreign exchange
losses on certain securities held by American Life before it was
acquired by MetLife from AIG in 2010. However, MetLife will
retain a portion of the winnings as a counter claim. The amount
to be remitted to AIG was not revealed.
However, MetLife will incur a charge of $30 million related to
the case in the first quarter of 2013. Additionally, the company
will record a charge of $60-$85 million related to its exit from
the banking business. The company had recorded $163 million in
2012 as costs related to exiting the banking business.
MetLife announced the receipt of the regulatory approval from
the Federal Reserve (Fed) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
(FDIC) to deregister as a bank holding company in Feb 2013. The
company had been aiming to shed its banking status for about two
years to get rid of the stringent regulations imposed on it as a
bank holding company.
The strict oversight from the Fed had even barred the
company's capital plan of authorizing a stock repurchase program
worth $2 billion and hiking its dividend to $1.10 per share from
the current 74 cents per share. However, the company rapidly
divested or shut down most of its banking operations last
year.
Further, in Jan 2013, MetLife reached the final phase of exit
from the banking business, when the regulators approved the
long-pending deal with
General Electric Co.
's (
GE
) financial services unit, GE Capital Retail Bank, and sold its
bank deposits worth $6.4 billion. This helped the company file
for deregistration of its banking status sooner than
expected.
Both MetLife and AIG currently carry a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Another multi-line insurer worth considering is
CNO Financial Group, Inc.
(
CNO
), which carries a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
AMER INTL GRP (AIG): Free Stock Analysis
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CNO FINL GRP (CNO): Free Stock Analysis
Report
GENL ELECTRIC (GE): Free Stock Analysis
Report
METLIFE INC (MET): Free Stock Analysis Report
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