Phoenix Cos., a financial planner and life insurer, said Thursday it swung to a loss during the third quarter as it took a non-cash charge in its asset management segment.
Phoenix lost $339.5 million, or $2.97 per share, during the third quarter, compared with earnings of $34.8 million, or 30 cents per share, during the same quarter last year.
The company recorded a non-cash impairment charge of $332.6 million during the quarter in its asset management segment due to the drop in equity markets and valuation work conducted in advance of a planned spin-off of the business. The asset management business will become known as Virtus Investment Partners Inc. after the spin-off.
Excluding the non-cash charge, Phoenix earned $15 million, or 13 cents per share, for the quarter.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, on average, forecast earnings of 18 cents per share for the quarter. Analysts typically exclude special charges from their estimates.
At midday, Phoenix shares traded at $6.03, down 1 cent, or 0.2 percent.
Excluding the impairment charge, the asset management unit generated a pretax loss of $6 million during the quarter, compared with earnings of $2.6 million during the year-ago period. The third quarter saw an outflow of $706.1 million during the quarter, better than the outflow of $829.6 million during the third quarter in 2007.
Assets under management tumbled to $28.69 billion at the end of the quarter, compared with $46.47 billion at the same time last year.
The life and annuity segment generated $33.3 million in pretax income during the quarter, down from $48.6 million during the year-ago period as life insurance sales declined. Annualized life insurance sales fell to $55.8 million from $96.2 million during the third quarter last year. (AP)
