GE Said To Be In Talks To Sell Life Re Business

By Trevor Thomas

May 04, 2003 at 08:00 PM

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GE Said To Be In Talks To Sell Life Re Business

The General Electric Company, Fairfield, Conn., is said to be discussing the possible sale of GE Employers Reinsurance Corp.s life reinsurance business to Swiss Reinsurance Co., Zurich, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal last week.

At press time, National Underwriter could not confirm the report. A spokesman for GE said the company would not comment on "speculative coverage."

GE acknowledged late last year that it was exploring the sale of both the life and property-casualty businesses of its ERC unit due to poor financial results.

The company hoped to complete the sale of the life reinsurance unit in the first half of 2003, a GE spokesman told the National Underwriter last November.

During a discussion of earnings late last year, GE chairman Jeff Immelt said that his company had been disappointed by ERCs performance and was looking to exit the life and property-casualty reinsurance businesses once a deal could be negotiated.

Immelt said at the time GE would spending $1.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2003 to strengthen ERCs reserves after the unit reported $1.2 billion in claims losses.

The Journal story quoted sources as estimating that ERCs life reinsurance business could be worth $2 billion.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Edition, May 5, 2003. Copyright 2003 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved. Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.

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