Executives from Brighthouse Financial are not talking about a Financial Times report that the company may be trying to find a buyer.
Securities analysts asked executives from Apollo Global Management and Equitable Holdings about the report during the public conference calls those companies held to go over their latest earnings.
The analysts did not ask Brighthouse a direct question about the report this week during the company's own earnings call.
Suneet Kamath, an analyst with Jefferies, asked Brighthouse executives whether it makes sense for the company to continue to be a stand-alone public company, given the complexity of efforts to manage the company's capital levels.
Brighthouse CEO Eric Steigerwalt said the company was trying to power through periods of complexity.
"Adding in these strategic initiatives, whether it's things like reinsurance, or other initiatives that we're thinking about, we're always trying to think of new initiatives," Steigerwalt said. "We're running this company every day to, over time, create long-term shareholder value.
Wells Fargo analysts wrote in a comment about the call that Brighthouse executives "did not address the elephant in the room."
"Management did not say much in terms of a potential sale of the company," the analysts wrote.
What it means: Some annuity issuers might be having a harder time finding the capital to support annuity sales.
Brighthouse: Brighthouse is the Charlotte, North Carolina-based company that MetLife created to hold its individual life and annuity operations after accounting rules changed and financial services regulators suggested that MetLife's old structure might make the company a potential source of risk to the financial system.
MetLife separated from Brighthouse in 2017.
The earnings: Brighthouse reported $672 million in net income for the fourth quarter on $1.2 billion in revenue, compared with a net loss of $916 million on $1.4 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter of 2023.
Excluding the effects of changes in the estimated value of assets and benefits promises, revenue increased to $2.3 billion, from $2.1 billion.
Adjusted earnings, which exclude the effects of the market value changes on assets and benefits, increased to $304 million, from $177 million.
Annuity sales fell to $2.2 billion, from $2.8 billion, but sales of the RILA contracts that Brighthouse most wants to sell increased to $1.9 billion, from $1.8 billion.
Sales of fixed indexed annuities increased to $62 million, from $45 million.
Sales of traditional fixed annuities fell to $97 million, from $708 million.
RILAs: An analyst asked whether increased RILA market competition is affecting sales.
Myles Lambert, the chief distribution and marketing officer at Brighthouse, said the company is still happy with the market.
"There's a lot of demand for these products," Lambert said. "Customers are looking to stay invested with protection. They're focused on retirement planning. So, the market has expanded quite a bit."
Brighthouse RILA sales continued to increase in 2024, and the addition of new features, such as an income rider and a new crediting strategy, should help sales this year, Lambert said.
Capital levels: In part because of the impact of strong annuity sales, the Brighthouse risk-based capital ratio, or financial strength summary measure, fell to about 400% of the company action level, from 428% a year earlier.
The insurance operations ended 2024 with $5.4 billion in total adjusted capital.
Brighthouse wants to keep its RBC ratio within a range of 400% to 450%.
The company brought the RBC ratio up to 400% at the end of the year by making reinsurance transactions and contributing $100 million in holding company cash to the insurance operations, Steigerwalt said.
Brighthouse had enough cash at the holding company level to buy back $60 million of its own stock in the fourth quarter, and it has bought back about 50% of the shares that were on the market in 2018, he said.
"We've still got $1 billion up at the holding company," Steigerwalt said.
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