TOKYO-- Hartford Financial Services Group said that the
financial conglomerate Orix Corp. has agreed to buy its Japanese
unit, Hartford Life Insurance K.K., in a deal worth around $895
million.
Orix said it plans to merge the Hartford unit with its Orix Life
Insurance.
Started in 2000, Hartford's Japanese unit found growth in
offering guaranteed-principal variable annuities. It stopped
selling them in 2009 as the market turmoil resulting from the
global financial crisis drove up the cost of maintaining the
guarantees.
While earnings have since recovered, the U.S. group has decided
to pull out of Japan, which it sees as a noncore market.
Other foreign insurers are rethinking their presence in Japan.
Prudential PLC decided last year to sell a Japanese life-insurance
subsidiary to SBI Holdings Inc. The German insurer Allianz SE
stopped selling new policies here in 2012.
By selling its entire stake in its Japan unit, Hartford Group
will permanently eliminate risk related to variable annuities in
Japan, the U.S. insurer said.
Orix is a financial-services provider with interests in
investment banking, venture capital, life insurance, and
real-estate development.
Write to Atsuko Fukase at atsuko.fukase@wsj.com
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