NEW YORK (AP) — The financial services company ING U.S., Inc. said Thursday that its first-quarter loss narrowed, helped by better results at its retirement and annuities businesses.
The company, which went public earlier this month, posted a loss attributable to common shareholders of $212 million, or 92 cents per share, compared with a loss of $505.2 million, or $2.20 per share, in the same quarter the year before.
Excluding certain items, the company said it posted an adjusted profit of 73 cents per share for the recent quarter.
Pretax operating earnings rose 11 percent at the retirement business to $137.8 million and jumped 49 percent to $54.3 million at its annuities business.
The company noted in its earnings release that much of the Q1 net loss to the common shareholder was due to a net loss of $310 million in its closed block of variable annuities, including an after-tax loss of $69 million due to a decline in non-performance risk. The company stated it considers that "a non-economic development. The significant equity market appreciation during 1Q '13, which is economically a positive development over the long term, resulted in accounting asymmetry for the closed block variable annuity segment, which more than offset the positive contributions of our operating earnings for the ongoing business."
