Hartford CEO: Considering 'Range Of Options' To Recover

After reporting a $1.21 billion first-quarter loss in a weakening environment for its insurance products, Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. (HIG) is cutting expenses and considering a "range of options" that could include asset sales, Ramani Ayer, the company's chief executive said Friday.

Among the cutbacks are a hiring freeze, "workplace reductions," and the company's already announced decision to suspend insurance product sales in Japan.

Hartford's insurance agents are struggling in a weak economy that has reduced the amount of insurance people and businesses are buying. For example, $1.6 billion in workers compensation premiums have "vanished" from the market based on the loss of 5 million jobs in the last year, Ayer said, during the company's first-quarter earnings call Friday.

Hartford's net loss was mainly due to a big charge related to its variable-annuity holdings.

Shares fell 9.3% to $10.40 in pre-market trading as the company sharply cut its 2009 guidance and said it is pursuing options for its institutional markets business to preserve capital and reduce risks.

During the call, Lizabeth Zlatkus, Hartford's chief financial officer, said that the company's risk-based capital ratio had dropped to a range between 420% and 430% from its year-end 2008 level of 462%.

The 199-year-old Hartford reported a net loss of $1.21 billion, or $3.77 a share, compared with net earnings attributable to Hartford of $145 million, or 46 cents a share, a year earlier. This was its third consecutive quarterly loss.

The latest results included a $1.5 billion charge related to the company's revision of its estimates of future gross profits in its life insurance operations, commonly referred to as a deferred-acquisition-cost, or DAC, unlock.

The operating loss was $3.66 a share, compared with operating income of $2.51 a share a year earlier.

Analysts projected an operating loss of $3.05 a share, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters.

Assets under management fell 22% to $330.19 billion.

Looking ahead, Hartford now expects 2009 operating earnings of 5 cents to 45 cents. It predicted operating earnings of $5.80 to $6.20 a share. Analysts were looking for earnings of 98 cents a share on revenue of $24.3 billion.

Hartford's stock is down 28% this year.

-By Lavonne Kuykendall, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]

(Kathy Shwiff contributed to this report.)