Johannesburg - Julian Roberts, newly appointed chief executive of financial services group Old Mutual (OML), said on Wednesday that his top priority would be to get to the bottom of the exposures in the group's US life business.
Addressing a conference call, Roberts, who has just been named CE after the surprise departure of Jim Sutcliffe, said the group has a "very difficult" position in its US life business and "we have to get to the bottom of it very fast".
Dow Jones Newswires reported that Roberts said the company isn't looking at sale options now, but "once we've got to the bottom of this and know what our exposures are, then we'll decided what we're going to do."
The group earlier announced that continuing market volatility and a firming of the US dollar had led to a further increase in the costs associated with the guaranteed benefits on the variable annuity contracts in its US life business.
In August the group announced a strengthening of reserves in the US life business to reflect the impact of volatile equity markets on variable annuity product guarantees.
Old Mutual has now recognised additional guarantee reserves of $155m - $93m of this will be taken through adjusted operating
profits reflecting the ineffective portion of the hedge, and the remaining $62m will be recognised in adjusted operating profits over five years.
The announcement that the US government has placed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in conservatorship has resulted in a sharp fall in the market value of the preferred stock of these companies. This has led to a write-down of around $135m in the value of the preferred stock in these companies held by the Old Mutual US life business, it added.
Unanimous decision
Under the group accounting policy, this write-down will be taken through adjusted operating profits over five years.
These two charges are likely to result in a combined impact for 2008 of 1.2p per share on adjusted operating EPS (IFRS basis) and 2.9p per share on basic EPS (IFRS basis) and embedded value per share (EEV basis), as there is unlikely to be any tax credit associated with these charges, it said.
Roberts said that getting to the bottom of exposures in the US business was the highest priority. "Once we get to the bottom of it, I will announce what actions will taken. The immediate priority it to draw a line under the exposures."
Old Mutual chairperson Christopher Collins said that in the wake of these problems, Sutcliffe decided to resign. The board regularly considers the succession issue and Roberts was the "heir apparent to Jim", he added. The appointment was a unanimous decision by the board.
Roberts added that Old Mutual had a team of people addressing the issues at the US life business and he was "comfortable" that the team was getting to the bottom of it.
"We will look at all the avenues available to us," he said. He added that he would have more to say the quarterly announcement in November.
The group said a number of actions have been underway with the aim of limiting Old Mutual Bermuda's exposure to the guarantees, including withdrawing products, currency hedging, improved fund mapping to reduce basis risk and reviewing options available to de-risk the in-force book through various corporate actions.
While this work has made good progress, it will take some time before the benefits from these actions are realised. In the meantime, if market conditions remain adverse, it is likely that further reserve strengthening will be required, it said.
Hedging team strengthened
The board has set aside a further $250m of capital to support the ongoing capital needs of the Bermuda business. The board expects to inject some or all of this capital by the end of the year, depending on business performance in the light of actual market conditions.
"Following the preference share write-downs in the US life business, we are reviewing the options we have to ensure that the US life business continues to be appropriately capitalised. Apart from the US life business, the rest of the Old Mutual's businesses continue to perform in line with our expectations at
the time of the interims on August 6 2008," it said.
At the time of the group's interim announcement last month, Sutcliffe had stressed the group was "absolutely determined" to sort out the US life business issues.
Bruce Parker was appointed CEO in June, Don Hope has taken control of the Bermuda business and the hedging team has been strengthened.
It recruited an additional vice-president of hedging, and two of its senior London finance executives joined the US hedging committee.
It also implemented a review of all its product lines, covering their potential and their risk to introduce the most rigorous oversight of the future conduct of this business.
Sutcliffe had said at the interim stage that the major disappointment in the period related to the Bermuda book in the US life business, which overshadowed an otherwise robust performance by the group.
- I-Net Bridge