Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. (HIG) Chairman and Chief
Executive Ramani Ayer will retire by the end of this year, ending
12 years as the company's top man.
The move comes four months after President and Chief Operating
Officer Neal Wolin resigned to take become deputy economic counsel
in the Obama administration.
Hartford said it will look externally for a successor to the
62-year-old, who has spent his entire 35-year career with the
company.
Shares rose 1.8% premarket to $15.14. The stock is down 78% the
past year as Hartford has been among the hardest-hit life insurers
in the ongoing credit crisis thanks to investment losses and
troubles at its annuity business.
The company suspended some sales of annuities, which carry
guaranteed minimum returns. But because of the equity market's
slump before the ongoing three-month rebound, annuity purveyors
have to make up the difference if investmnet returns can't fulfill
the required minimums.
Ayer said his decision to retire follows "a series of important
decisions" about Hartford's future direction. "It is the right time
for me to make my plans for retirement and for the board to begin
the search for my successor."
The company in April sharply cut its 2009 guidance and said it
was pursuing options for its institutional markets business to
preserve capital and reduce risks. It also is shopping its
profitable property and casualty business, which could sell for $6
billion to $7 billion, and paring back abroad.
Hartford and Lincoln National Corp. (LNC) are the only two life
insurers which have said they are inclined to take funds from the
Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Fitch Ratings recently downgraded the insurer one notch to two
steps above junk, citing the difficulties.
-By Mike Barris, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5658;
mike.barris@dowjones.com
