MetLife Inc. announced Friday that it has been told by Citigroup Inc. that Citigroup sold to an unaffiliated broker-dealer all of the 22,436,617 shares of MetLife common stock the banking company received in its July 1, 2005, sale of Travelers Life and Annuity and substantially all of its international insurance businesses to MetLife.
Citigroup further informed MetLife that all of the shares were delivered to the third-party broker-dealer Friday pursuant to certain forward contracts previously entered into by Citigroup and the broker-dealer. Citi's stake was about 3% of the 758.2 million MetLife shares outstanding at March 31.
Because MetLife believes that the broker-dealer had previously engaged in hedging activities with respect to a substantial portion or more of the shares, the sale of these shares to the broker-dealer should not materially increase the net supply of MetLife shares in the market, the New York insurer said.
