MetLife CFO: Overseas acquisitions are on tap

MetLife Inc. is licking its chops at the opportunity to expand overseas, according to published reports. William Wheeler, the carrier's finance chief, spoke yesterday at the Barclays PLC Global Financial Services Conference in New York, and indicated that the company is poised to make acquisitions outside of the United States. “We've come through this crisis pretty well,” Mr. Wheeler was quoted as saying in published reports. “Our ability to pursue meaningful international M&A opportunities is there. I'm not sure there are many others in that situation.” Sure enough, when some insurers anxiously awaited aid from the federal government earlier this year, MetLife turned up its nose at the Troubled Asset Relief Program, saying that it had sufficient capital and didn't need support. Back in February, MetLife bid $11.2 billion for American International Group Inc.'s American Life Insurance Co. unit, insiders told Bloomberg, but that deal never materialized. Talks of MetLife's courting ALICO bubbled up again in July. That month, AIG also announced that it would speed up the process of positioning ALICO as an independent entity and seek an initial public offering of the company. A call to Christopher Breslin, spokesman for MetLife, was not immediately returned.