French Insurer AXA Files For IPO of U.S. Unit
November 13 2017 - 7:27PM
Dow Jones News
By Maria Armental
French insurance company AXA SA has filed preliminary documents
for an initial public offering of its U.S. life-insurance
operations.
The insurance group, which would keep the sale proceeds and
retain control of the company, has said the listing would give more
flexibility to its U.S. arm, which includes AXA Equitable Holdings
Inc. and a majority stake in fund manager AllianceBernstein Holding
LP.
Following the planned IPO, the portion of the AllianceBernstein
business not controlled by AXA would remain a separate publicly
traded entity.
The Wall Street Journal reported in May that AXA was interested
in pursuing an IPO for its U.S. arm.
The decision comes as profitability in the industry has been
hurt by low interest rates following the financial crisis.
AXA Equitable Holdings, filed Monday with the Securities and
Exchange Commission, said it planned to raise up to $100 million in
its IPO. However the $100 million figure is often used as a
placeholder to determine filing fees and is often changed. The
filing didn't contain information on which exchange shares would
trade.
AXA Equitable Holdings on Monday said it earned a profit of $265
million in the first six months of 2017, down from $1.66 billion
from the comparable 2016 period. Excluding investment gains and
losses and other items, operating earnings stood at $641 million as
of June 30, up from $523 million in the year-ago period.
Revenue fell 15% to $7.02 billion.
The company would have a book value -- or assets minus
liabilities -- of roughly $14.87 billion, according to the
filing.
AXA Equitable Holdings is one of America's oldest life insurers,
founded in 1859 in New York, and was long known as Equitable Life
Assurance Society of the U.S. AXA acquired it in 1992.
AXA's move follows MetLife Inc.'s spinoff of its insurance
operation.
Manulife Financial Corp. is also considering a spinoff or IPO of
the Boston-based John Hancock Financial Services unit.
Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 13, 2017 19:12 ET (00:12 GMT)
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