Hartford CEO: Will Not Sell P/C And Life Insurance Operations

Days after being approved to receive $3.4 billion through the Treasury's TARP Capital Purchase Program, Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. (HIG) announced that it will keep its U.S. property/casualty and life businesses.

The announcement, in an employee memo signed by Chief Executive Ramani Ayer, comes after months of speculation that the company was shopping its life insurance and property/casualty operations in order to bolster its faltering capital.

In the memo, Ayer said Hartford will be a "U.S. centric insurance company, with a focus on our strong portfolio of protection businesses, primarily property and casualty, group benefits and life insurance. We will also continue to operate strong wealth management and retirement businesses, including mutual funds, retirement plans and a restructured annuities business. As a result, we will move forward with both property and casualty and life businesses."

The company will continue with its plans to restructure its global annuity business, and explore options for its institutional markets group, the memo said.

"While many of our underlying operations are performing well, The Hartford was more affected by the market volatility than some of our peers, given the issues in our investment portfolio and the size of our variable annuities businesses," Ramani said in the memo.

Preliminary approval of its $3.4 billion application to the Treasury's Troubled Asset Recovery Program's Capital Purchase Program, announced last week, could put the company on firmer ground.

Shares of Hartford rose 8.2% recently to $15.79.

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