MetLife mulls spinoff or IPO
NEW YORK – MetLife plans to carve off a substantial portion of its U.S. life insurance business via a sale, spinoff or an initial public offering as the parent company challenges harsher regulatory oversight. The company has been disputing its designation by federal regulators as a “systemically important” entity that’s deemed “too big to fail.” That categorization makes it subject to greater government oversight and, MetLife says, exorbitant costs.