The Hartford seeks buyers for its property/casualty unit

The Hartford (Conn.) Financial Services Group Inc. has approached its rivals in recent weeks searching for a buyer for its property/casualty unit, Bloomberg reported. Ace Ltd. of Zurich, Switzerland, and The Travelers Cos. Inc. of New York are among the possible buyers, insiders told the news service. Compared with the life-and-annuity side of the business, The Hartford’s property/casualty operations ended last year in the black, with net income at $189 million, down from $1.5 billion in 2007. That decline was due primarily to a fall in investment performance. Meanwhile, the carrier’s life operations reported a $2.4 billion loss last year, compared with a profit of $1.6 billion in 2007. Battered by ratings downgrades in the past few months, the carrier has been searching for a buyer to take up its life operations too. But talks with Sun Life Financial Inc. of Toronto ended without a sale, the insiders told Bloomberg. The carrier continues to search for other buyers to take on its group life division, the insiders said. Calls to Shannon LaPierre, a spokeswoman for The Hartford, weren’t returned.