Sunday, January 14, 2007

Sell-off from a spin-off Genworth Financial was the spin-off from General Electric in 2004 of its Financial Assurance unit. The company offers a wide variety of services, including life insurance, long-term care insurance, annuities and mortgage insurance. Now Genworth announced the sale of its employee benefits unit to Canadian insurer Sun Life. The deal is for $650 million. That unit offers group life, disability, medical stop-loss and dental insurance and serves 2.9 million people. It is aimed especially at small businesses. Sun Life, though based in Canada, has half of its operations in the US, including U.S. mutual-fund business MFS Investment Management. Sun Life already has an employee benefits group, aimed more add large and mid-level businesses. Currently, it offers no dental insurance, important in offering one-stop shopping. For Genworth, it's a matter of uploading a side business and getting some serious cash. For Sun Life, it's a chance to extend its US foothold. Both companies are busy sorting their assets so they can be a serious player in their market segments. 8:18:35 PM

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