NEW YORK – MetLife Inc. (NYSE: MET) posted a third-quarter profit of $630 million, a 38.17-percent decline from the year-ago $1.02 billion, on total revenue that rose 14.56 percent to $13.28 billion.
Net income from continuing operations rose 13.4 percent to $1.03 billion from the year-ago $909 million, while earnings per diluted common share increased to $1.42 from the 2007 third quarter’s $1.19, the company said.
Excluding net investment income, which fell 10.22 percent to $4.05 billion, and pre-tax investment gains of $745 million, compared with the year-ago loss of $209 million, gross revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30 rose 16.34 percent to $8.58 billion.
“During the third quarter, MetLife generated strong top-line growth against the backdrop of an extremely challenging environment,” C. Robert Henrikson, MetLife’s chairman, president and CEO, said in a statement that accompanied the after-market report.
Results for the period included about $24 million, or 3 cents per diluted common share, in earnings from the company’s former Reinsurance Group of America Inc. (RGA) division. MetLife’s spinoff of “substantially all the company’s interest” in RGA was completed in the third quarter. “The split-off transaction resulted in a GAAP loss of $458 million, a statutory gain in excess of $1 billion and a decrease in MetLife’s share count of approximately 23 million shares,” the company said.
Among other divisions, Institutional Business posted third-quarter operating earnings of $396 million, down from $467 million a year ago, despite revenue that rose 30 percent to a record $4.5 billion. The company cited lower investment income and less-favorable underwriting results for its non-medical health businesses.
Individual Business saw third-quarter operating earnings shrink to $218 million from the year-ago $363 million, as financial-market declines and their effect on the division’s annuity business outweighed growth in life insurance earnings.
Group Life saw earnings rise 20 percent to $145 million from the year-ago $121 million, on revenue that grew 7 percent. Its results were boosted by “strong interest margins and favorable underwriting results,” MetLife said.
And the Warwick-based Home & Auto division saw operating earnings fall 7.44 percent to $101 million, as a catastrophe-driven decline in homeowners earnings outweighed a 30-percent rise in earnings from auto insurance. Disaster payouts also hurt earnings in the 2008 second quarter. (READ MORE)
“This quarter, we once again demonstrated the benefit of having a diverse mix of businesses, a strong balance sheet and a high-quality investment portfolio,” Henrikson said. “While we clearly are not immune from the volatility in both the credit and equity markets, MetLife is well positioned to continue to meet the needs of our customers and leverage a number of growth opportunities before us.”
On Oct. 15, the company “completed its public offering of 75 million shares of common stock and issued an additional 11.25 million shares of common stock, pursuant to the exercise in full by the underwriters of their over-allotment option. The total offering of 86.25 million shares produced gross proceeds of approximately $2.3 billion,” which MetLife said it will use “for general corporate purposes and potential strategic initiatives.”
That offering “has further bolstered its strong, excess capital position,” Henrikson said. “And, in a sign of our continued commitment to delivering value to our shareholders, our board of directors has declared an annual common stock dividend of 74 cents per share, which is unchanged from the dividend we paid in 2007.”
MetLife Inc. (NYSE: MET) is the nation’s largest insurer, and a provider of insurance and financial services in the United States, Latin America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. Its Warwick-based MetLife Home & Auto division employs more than 2,000 people in Rhode Island. Additional information is available at www.MetLife.com.
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