MetLife Reports Fourth-Quarter Profit Surge After Selling Apartment Complex

MetLife Inc., the largest American life insurer, said fourth-quarter profit surged more than five-fold after it sold Manhattan's biggest apartment complex at a $3 billion gain.

Net income climbed to $3.86 billion, or $4.95 a share, from $709 million, or 88 cents a year earlier, the New York-based company said in a statement.

Operating profit, which excludes the sale, rose 32% to $1.05 billion, or $1.36 a share. The average estimate of 16 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was $1.18.

MetLife sold the 80-acre Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village property in November after building the complex in the 1940s to provide affordable housing for soldiers returning from World War II.

Revenue also rose, increasing 12 percent to $12.9 billion on higher premiums, fees and net investment income.

"It was a combination of good sales and strong investment results," an analyst at Celent LLC, a Boston-based financial research and consulting firm, Donald Light, said.

Net income from annuities rose 38% to $164 million, as rising stock markets boosted fees from managing clients' assets.

Assets in variable annuities, mutual funds with insurance guarantees, rose 17% to $83.9 billion in 2006 as the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 14%.

Premiums and deposits rose just 2% to $2.53 billion, lagging the 26% average increase of seven other sellers of the retirement savings products, according to an analyst at Bank of American Corp, Tamara Kravec.