MetLife Is Shifting From Hedge Funds To Real Estate
After poor results from hedge fund investments, MetLife is shifting funds into real estate.
The largest US life insurer is adding investments “in segments that require less capital and have more predictable income streams to us, including structured finance and mortgages,” MetLife CEO Steve Kandarian says.
Both Kandarian and American International Group CEO Peter Hancock have been upping their lending to recoup losses from hedge funds, and MetLife CIO Steven Goulart said in May the company was looking to withdraw $1.2B of its $1.8B in hedge fund holdings—which would take a couple of years to complete, Bloomberg reports.
Kandarian says the investing shift is part of a larger effort to recover from a stock slump by increasing the earnings that can be given to shareholders or used for buyouts. [Bloomberg]
