Metlife Inc (NYSE:MET) branch goes further into investment-management

Metlife Inc(NYSE:MET) is going to step into the world of real-estate as well as private-placement debt as a part of increasing their yields. The life insurance firm announced on Tuesday, that they will be broadening their scope of investment-management by seriously stepping into these fields as means of increasing yields for the big investors, as well as the pension funds. Institutional investors are pouring in increasing amounts into these two very lucrative fields. This is mostly because of the good returns from such investments, and with the interest rate running very low, this initiative can be a very productive one.

MetLife has already had a substantial amount of expertise and experience in these fields. The company itself is one of the largest of the Institutional investors, and they know their way around these two fields quite well. The areas that the insurance company is venturing into, has already been dominated by some very formidable rivals. But MetLife is confident about being able to make a mark in the asset-management arena. However, the fact that the company is no amateur when it comes to these matters, has its proof in the fact that the company already has eight offices dealing with real-estate in the U.S, apart from others in cities such as London, Santiago, Tokyo as well as Mexico City. In the area of private-placement too, the insurance company has holdings in about 32 countries.

Steven Goulart who is the Chief Investment Officer at MetLife said that with the talent-pool and the other facilities which MetLife has, it can get assets which will be high in quality, and which will give good returns for the company. MetLife already happens to manage about $10 Billion in direct equity real-estate investments, about $43 Billion regarding real-estate loans and about $50 Billion for private-placement investments. Since the other institutional investors have expressed their interest in private-asset arenas, MetLife will try to rise to the expectations.

Robert Merck, who is the global head of real-estate investments, will be heading MetLife Real Estate Investors, the name of the new real-estate branch. Scott Inglis, the global head of private securities will be heading MetLife Private Capital Investors, which will be involved with the organization of private-placement debt issues.