How Does Prudential’s Acquisition Affect Both Companies?

The Hartford Financial Services Group has reached an agreement with Prudential Financial to sell its individual life insurance business for $615 million in cash. The transaction is part of Hartford’s plan to divest non-core businesses and increase focus on property and casualty insurance.

The insurer had earlier agreed to sell its retirement plans business to Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual), its broker-dealer business, Woodbury Financial Services, to AIG and its individual annuities new business capabilities to Forethought Financial Group, a Houston-based inancial services company. Paulson & Co, a big shareholder in Hartford, had earlier pressured the insurer to undertake the divestiture. (Refer to our article Hartford Trims Non- Core Businesses While Focusing On Property And Casualty for more details).

The acquisition of Hartford’s individual life insurance business will provide a solid platform for organic growth in the future. Prudential’s last significant deals were the acquisitions of Star Life Insurance Co., Ltd. and Edison Life Insurance Company from AIG. These deals proved to be quite successful in allowing Prudential to capture share in the Japanese insurance market, which increased from 7.3% to 10.4% within one year of the deal.

Forbes

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