Hartford mulls disposals after Paulson campaign Hartford Financial Services, the US insurance group, is considering selling some of its units, responding to pressure from billionaire investor John Paulson. The company will stop selling new annuity products from next month and is "pursuing sales or other strategic alternatives" for individual life insurance, retirement services and its Woodbury brokerage subsidiary. As a result, the company will focus on its property and casualty, group benefits and mutual fund businesses. The potential sales and wind-down follows a month of unusually public campaigning by Mr Paulson, who has called for the life business to be split into a separate company. His hedge fund, Paulson & Co, is the largest owner of Hartford, with an 8.4 per cent stake. Though Hartford's plan stopped short of a spin-off, Liam McGee, chief executive, told analysts: "We appreciate positive dialogue with ... Paulson & Co. The plan we outlined this morning is the right path for The Hartford, and we are focused on its execution. Mr Paulson had personally addressed Mr McGee during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call in February, calling for "something drastic" to improve the company's share price performance, and has since advocated a split to analysts and other shareholders. He has not yet publicly responded to the company's proposal, which will continue to see the company managing annuity products, even as it stops writing new ones. Hartford said it will explore options such as sales of positions, securitisations and "other risk actions" to reduce its use of capital over the next 18 months. Hartford shares were up 2.4 per cent in late trading on Wednesday, to $22.22, and are up 35 per cent on the year. However, Mr Paulson estimated that the company's share price could be worth as much as $32 if split into two pieces, arguing that equity analysts saw little synergy between the life insurance businesses and the property and casualty units. Like other insurers, Hartford has been raising rates and increasing profits in its property and casualty business. But its life units are under pressure from historically low interest rates, which make it difficult to earn a spread between its investments and products such as annuities, which promise payouts over time. Mr McGee has previously told Mr Paulson that "there were significant costs to surmount" in such a split, such as severing contracts and that "we do not believe that splitting them in the current environment ... will create shareholder value." But Hartford's timing of any sales may be advantageous. As US interest rates have risen sharply this month, life insurance stocks have been outperforming their property and casualty counterparts. The Dow Jones US life insurance index is up 17.9 per cent year-to-date, versus a 6.4 per cent rise for the property and casualty index. Hartford has retained Goldman Sachs and Greenhill as advisers, according to people familiar with the matter.