MetLife posts 11% premium, fee growth

NEW YORK – The nation’s largest insurer, MetLife Inc. (NYSE: MET), posted a 2008 profit of $3.08 billion, a 26.22 percent decline from the year-ago $4.18 billion, despite total full-year revenue that grew 8.12 percent to $50.99 billion. Earnings per diluted common share shrank to $1.20 from 2007’s $1.44 per share, weighed down by fourth-quarter investment losses.
But premium and fee income – excluding net investment gains – rose 10.81 percent year over year to $32.88 billion (from 2007’s $29.67 billion) led by the company’s International Business segment, which posted a 19 percent increase in premium and fee income while the separate International division posted an 11 percent increase.
Meanwhile, net investment gains, including proceeds from the sale of real estate associated with discontinued operations, grew to $18.12 billion, a 3.56 percent increase from 2007. (READ MORE)
“In 2008, MetLife generated a strong, 11 percent increase in top-line results in what is clearly the most challenging economic environment we have experienced in decades,” said C. Robert Henrikson, the company’s chairman, president and chief executive officer.
“During the year, we benefited from a flight to quality in the marketplace. Our core businesses continued to grow and we achieved a number of positive results, including higher pension closeout sales as well as strong annuity deposits in both the United States and Japan.” U.S. annuity deposits grew 16 percent compared with 2007, the company said.
The company noted that it maintained its annual dividend payments at 74 cents per share, the same as in 2007. The unaudited results released by MetLife last night were in line with the company’s “Investor Day” earnings guidance in December. (READ MORE)
MetLife’s Warwick-based Auto & Home division posted operating income of $112 million, a 9 percent increase from 2007’s $103 million, on net income that fell 58.07 percent to $187 million. Excluding the division’s investment losses of $88 million in 2008 and its 2007 gains of $10 million, net income would have fallen 37.16 percent to $275 million.
For the final three months of 2008, Auto & Home’s operating income rose 9 percent to $112 billion, from $103 billion in the 2007 fourth quarter, despite net income that fell 52.34 percent year over year to $56 million. Excluding investment losses of $28 million, and a year-ago gain of $2 million, the division would have seen fourth-quarter net income shrink 0.20 percent to $84 million.
The parent company posted fourth-quarter net income of $148 million, an 87.25-percent decline from the year-ago period’s $1.16 billion, on total revenue that grew 13.44 percent year over year to $13.96 billion. Companywide earnings per diluted common share dwindled to 19 cents from the 2007 fourth quarter’s $1.54 per share as investment losses surged amid the continuing global financial turmoil.
“MetLife’s capital strength, strong ratings and focus on the long term will continue to set us apart as we move ahead in 2009,” Hendrickson said. “These attributes – along with our diversified businesses and investment portfolio – serve us well.”
MetLife Inc. (NYSE: MET) is a provider of insurance and financial services to more than 70 million customers in the United States, Latin America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. Its Rhode Island-based MetLife Home & Auto division employs more than 2,000 people at its offices in Warwick. Additional information is available at www.MetLife.com.