SI
SI
discoversearch

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor.  We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community.  If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.
Strategies & Market Trends : Value Investing -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Sergio H who wrote (45636)11/22/2011 8:55:02 PM
From: Sergio H  Respond to of 78704
 
Correction, MET's U.S. earnings are about 60%.

Regarding their European exposure, from the recent conference call:

<I want to quickly review another topic with you, our European investment exposure. There are 3 slides in the appendix starting on Slide 32, which summarize this. MetLife's total European exposure is approximately $42 billion in GAAP book value, which is less than 10% of our general account portfolio. It's important to note that the market value exceeds the GAAP book value by more than $1 billion. Generally speaking, our European exposures focused on those higher-rated countries in the region. The largest holdings are our $24 billion of non-financial corporate bonds. These holdings are in companies that are market leaders in the utility, telecom or infrastructure sectors or large investment grade companies that are globally diversified such as food and beverage, energy or pharmaceuticals. I would highlight that over 90% of our European portfolio is investment-grade, and of the 10% which is below investment grade, approximately 60% of it is in the corporate sector. Less than 2% or about $8.8 billion of our portfolio is invested in European financials. This is an area where MetLife has been reducing exposure for nearly 2 years. Within financials, our European hybrid exposure is less than $1.4 billion or less than 0.35% of our total portfolio. Our hybrid positions are concentrated in financial companies in the U.K., Netherlands and Switzerland. As you can see from the slide, we hold approximately $6.9 billion in European banks. We've sold nearly $3.5 billion in book value since early 2010 at average prices in the mid-'90s. Sales have focused on institutions with exposure to peripheral Europe, lower preference capital structure instruments and larger absolute exposures, particularly where we had any credit concerns. Our remaining holdings are generally in the larger, better-capitalized European banks.>



To: Sergio H who wrote (45636)11/22/2011 10:42:55 PM
From: Spekulatius  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 78704
 
re MET
What about the levered cash being negative. I think its due to the acquisition. Am I correct?

Levered cash flow is not a useful metric for a financial - I cringe when I read the seekingalpa articles about financial discussing cash flow or free cash flow. Any growing financial will show negative FCF, this is simply a result of the inherent leverage

The metric that matters for a financial are:
1) capital ratios - you want them to stay the same or go up
2) asset quality
3) ROA