Corebridge CEO Dismisses Equitable Deal Delay Talk, Says October Annuity Sales Were 'Very Robust'
Marc Costantini kept a year-end closing target and said fourth-quarter annuity net flows should top the $1 billion reported for the third quarter.
Corebridge Financial, which sells retirement products and life insurance in the United States, is sticking to a year-end close for its merger with Equitable, and CEO Marc Costantini said on the company's third-quarter earnings call that press talk of a snag over accounting rules is wrong. Pressed by a Jefferies analyst on whether the two insurers' differing permitted practices, accounting treatments that regulators allow, could delay the close, he said "what you're inferring there is not the case."
Denying the permitted-practices worry
Costantini added that
October annuity momentum
Costantini said October was "very robust" in the annuity business and that he expects fourth-quarter net flows "well above the billion-dollar level." Individual retirement net flows were about $1 billion in the third quarter, when sales of $4.5 billion rose 17% from the second quarter.
Pension deals and synergies
Management said Corebridge has already been selected for over $1.5 billion of pension risk transfer deals, which it expects to close in the fourth quarter. Third-quarter volume in that business was only $156 million.
Asked about revenue synergies, Costantini gave no figures and pointed to an investor day in the second quarter of 2027. He noted the company has guided to $100 billion of assets moving off the Corebridge balance sheet.
The quarter itself: operating earnings per share were $1.22, up 27% from a year earlier, and adjusted return on average equity was 12.1%. The company returned $295 million to shareholders through dividends and buybacks.
The investor day in the second quarter of 2027 is where Costantini says revenue-synergy details will come.
Sources
- Corebridge (CRBG) Q3 Earnings: Taking a Look at Key Metrics Versus Estimates — Yahoo Finance
- Corebridge: Q3 Earnings Snapshot — Associated Press
- Corebridge Financial (CRBG) Meets Q3 Earnings Estimates — Yahoo Finance
- Corebridge Financial Non-GAAP EPS of $1.22 misses by $0.02, revenue of $4.5B misses by $710M (NYSE:CRBG) | Seeking Alpha — seekingalpha.com
- Corebridge: Q3 Earnings Snapshot | 9news.com — Associated Press
