Officials at Citigroup Inc. and MetLife Inc. said Thursday that they believe the sale of Travelers Life and Annuity will go through as planned, despite the objections of Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.
Citi said Jan. 31 that it would sell the Travelers unit and most of its international insurance business to MetLife for $11.5 billion.
On Wednesday Mr. Blumenthal announced his opposition to the deal, saying the sale would cost the state jobs and hurt its economy.
"MetLife is welcome to expand its presence in Connecticut, as long as it fulfills its public-interest obligations to Travelers' employees, Hartford, and the state," he said in a statement.
The decision whether to approve the merger rests with the Connecticut Insurance Department.
A spokeswoman would not comment directly on the attorney general's request, but noted that members of the public are invited to comment on applications.
She acknowledged that Mr. Blumenthal's comments "would probably receive more weight" than those of the general public.
John Calagna, a spokesman for MetLife Inc., said Thursday that the company had not yet completed its application, but hoped to respond to questions posed by the insurance department by next week. It still aims to close the deal in July.
The acquisition "needs to be fair to the policy holders and to the public. We believe our application and our proposal does meet that test," Mr. Calagna said. "We remain confident that the insurance department will approve our proposal."
Mr. Blumenthal has no formal standing in the approval process, but has asked the insurance department to reject the transaction.
In a letter dated Thursday and addressed to Susan Cogswell, Connecticut's insurance commissioner, he asked the department to collect more information about the jobs lost, including salary ranges, severance packages for Travelers' executives, and "a detailed description of the charitable and civic activities in Connecticut of the Travelers and MetLife for the past five years, and plans for such activities after the acquisition."
Mr. Blumenthal also asked for disclosure of any instance of bid-rigging by MetLife, or actions it took to prevent disclosure of bonuses to brokers.
A spokeswoman for Citigroup said, "We believe MetLife will be able to resolve this matter."
