Westchester County Business Journal 06/12/12 issue

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WESTCHESTER COUNTY

BUSINESS JOURNAL

YOUR only SOURCE FOR regional BUSINESS NEWS | westfaironline.com

June 11, 2012 | VOL. 48, No. 24

Bob Rozycki

Swiss Re sells U.S. unit Buyer has offices in Purchase

BY JANICE KIRKEL jkirkel@westfairinc.com

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wiss Re, whose U.S. headquarters are in Armonk, will sell its U.S. Admin Re business, known as the Reassure America Life Insurance Co., to Jackson National Life Insurance for $600 million in cash. Swiss Re will also get a pre-closing dividend of $300 million. Admin Re is the unit of Swiss Re that acquires life and health insurance business and then administers the underlying policies. U.S. Admin Re said it expects a loss of $900 million from the transaction, which it said would be booked in the second quarter of 2012. The exact amount of the loss will be determined at closing. Swiss Re will retain certain blocks of business. Jackson National Life Insurance is headquartered in Lansing, Mich., but the unit that sells life insurance in New York state,

Jackson National Life Insurance Co. of New York, is based in Purchase. Jackson is a unit of Prudential PLC of the United Kingdom. Swiss Re said it wanted to free capital and monetize the value of Admin Re. It also said it wants to focus on life insurance in the United Kingdom and continental Europe. “After conducting a thorough review of the Admin Re portfolio and evaluating the level of capital allocated to the Admin Re U.S. business, we concluded that we should redeploy the capital in other parts of our business,” Admin Re Chairman David Blumer said. “We consistently said the group’s 2011 to 2015 financial targets are our top priority,” said Swiss Re Group Chief Executive Michel Liès. “Redeploying the funds freed up through this transaction within the Swiss Re Group will have a beneficial impact on all three of our financial targets in the future, that is to say return on equity, earnings per Swiss Re, page 37

Chris Dessi

Social value

Experts weigh in on ROI of tweets, videos and email marketing BY PATRICK GALLAGHER pgallagher@westfairinc.com

With the cost of social media training, support and management ranging from hundreds of dollars an hour to as much as $5,000 a month, businesses not fully on board with the social wave are skepti-

cal of whether the investment is worth the return. As social media evolves and becomes more fully integrated with the broader marketing strategies of the businesses that are active in the social sphere, however, expert assistance is becoming increasingly Social value, page 6

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DiNapoli sees ‘challenges’ to state’s economy, job market BY PATRICK GALLAGHER pgallagher@westfairinc.com

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hile Hudson Valley economic development authorities urge patience, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli says New York employers still face “significant challenges and risks” in the wake of a national hiring slowdown and a worsening European debt crisis.

Man on a mission • 4

Through April, New York state employers had recovered 95 percent of the jobs lost during the recession. But that number was masked by major gains in New York City, which accounts for 44 percent of the state’s workforce. In the lower Hudson Valley, employers added 16,700 jobs between December 2009 and this past April – the last month for which DiNapoli, page 6

Sunny outlook • 13


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