Shares of Brighthouse Financial will begin trading Monday after growing this past decade to become one of the nation’s biggest sellers of retirement-income annuities to consumers.
Brighthouse is built around MetLife’s historic core selling life insurance to U.S. households. In recent decades, the unit grew to be one of the nation’s biggest sellers of retirement-income annuities to consumers. But the ultralow interest rates ushered in by the global financial crisis of 2008 have hurt the profitability of these products.
The concept behind the spinoff is simple. For MetLife, the goal is a higher share valuation once the company is freed of slower-growing operations and facing less pressure from low interest rates. For Brighthouse, the hope is that by “standing on its own two feet, being smaller, more nimble,” the firm can perform better, said MetLife Chief Executive Steve Kandarian in an interview.
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