In Brief: Numbers Improve at Ailing Conseco Unit

INDIANAPOLIS — Gary C. Wendt, chairman and chief executive of Conseco Inc., on Friday issued his 10th memo to investors about the company’s efforts to turn around from a two-year tailspin caused by trouble in its Conseco Finance Corp. unit.

In his latest letter, Mr. Wendt said he expects Conseco Finance’s pretax 2001 earnings to come in on the high end of its December projection of $350 million to $390 million. He added that the unit has raised its projection of the positive cash flow it will deliver to the parent company to a range of $300 million to $350 million.

In a fourth-quarter earnings conference call, Conseco officials had predicted a contribution of $250 million to $300 million.

Mr. Wendt also said that delinquencies of more than 60 days in the unit’s manufactured housing portfolio have dropped 13 basis points, to 2.07%, after climbing to 2.20% in December and January.

Mr. Wendt joined Conseco last June to help bring it back from troubles stemming from its April 1998 purchase of Green Tree Financial in St. Paul, now renamed Conseco Finance. Since then, Conseco Inc.’s stock price has dropped by as much as 90%. Several key executives resigned last spring after finding themselves unable to reverse the company’s slide.

From the fourth quarter of 1999 to the third quarter of 2000, the company lost more than $800 million, including almost $500 million in the July-September quarter last year.

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