MetLife to Merge Two Subsidiaries to Simplify Corporate Structure
January 22, 2018 by Marie Suszynski
NEW YORK – MetLife Inc. said it plans to merge two of its subsidiaries to streamline and simplify its corporate and operational structure.
The company will merge General American Life Insurance Co. with Metropolitan Tower Life Insurance Co.
Metropolitan Tower Life will be the surviving entity and will be domiciled in Nebraska.
The transaction is expected to close during the first half of the year. It is subject to regulatory approvals.
The company made the move after separating its U.S. retail segment and conducting a review of its entities. The merger will help MetLife remain competitive and flexible, the company said in a statement.
MetLife’s U.S. retail business has been renamed Brighthouse Financial Inc. MetLife completed the spinoff in August and Brighthouse began trading as a separate company (Best’s News Service, Aug. 7, 2017).
MetLife separated the business in an effort to be free of its designation as a systemically important financial institution. Recently, attorneys for MetLife said a U.S. Treasury Department report on the Financial Stability Oversight Council designation process supports its arguments MetLife shouldn’t have been named a SIFI (Best’s News Service, Dec. 18, 2017).
MetLife has been ranked by A.M. Best as the world’s largest insurance company with non-banking assets, as measured by 2016 net premiums written (Best’s News Service, Jan. 4, 2018).
(By Marie Suszynski, BestWeek Correspondent: Marie.Suszynski@ambest.com)