NEW YORK - Hartford Financial Services Group, the insurer that replaced its chief executive after a US bailout, reported its fifth straight quarterly loss on declines in the value of investments.
The net loss for the three months ended Sept. 30 narrowed to $220 million, or 79 cents a share, from a loss of $2.63 billion, or $8.74, in the year-earlier period, Hartford said. Excluding some investment results, earnings were $1.56 a share, beating the $1.13 average estimate of 14 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Hartford added to the $4.66 billion in losses the company accumulated in the previous year as debt holdings lost value amid rising unemployment. The insurer was caught off guard last year with bets in structured debt and financial services investments, and raised $3.4 billion from the government in June to rebuild capital.
Chief executive Liam McGee, hired in September from Bank of America Corp., is seeking to reduce risk in a portfolio that produced $2 billion of impairments in the third-quarter last year. McGee is reviewing Hartford’s life, retirement, and property-casualty businesses.
