Sometimes, when you get yourself into a little trouble, it forces you to do some things you may not otherwise have done. Take the case of BankAmerica. Through various mergers over the years, it built up a pretty sizeable asset management division which became known as Columbia Management. But then along came the credit crisis, and some problematic acquisitions that weighed on BankAmerica. It had to raise capital, so, it sold Columbia to Amerprise Financial for $1 billion.
Today, Ameriprise reported second quarter earnings and it showed some good profit numbers in its asset management business, which had two months of Columbia’s performance included. The unit earned $56 million this quarter versus a loss of $12 million in the year-ago quarter. By no means was this the unit powering all of Ameriprise’s earnings (insurance, annuities and wealth management all had higher profits.) But it is clearly a profitable business, one creating millions of dollars of cash for Ameriprise – money you have to wonder if BankAmerica is now regretting it doesn’t have.
Merriam Webster’s definition of hedge: a means of protection or defense (as against financial loss). We thought it would be worth checking on that definition again as we read with interest MetLife’s third-quarter earnings release (just out a short while ago) that included some information about its $1.4 billion investment loss (after-tax) in the quarter. About $860 million of that loss was connected to derivatives.
