GWO acquisitions add risk

Article Excerpt

GREAT-WEST LIFECO $35.36 (Toronto symbol GWO; Shares outstanding: 986.1 million; Market cap: $35.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Yield: 3.9%; www. greatwestlifeco.com) is Canada’s second-largest insurance company, after Manulife Financial (Toronto symbol MFC and a buy recommendation of Canadian Wealth Advisor). It also offers mutual funds, retirement planning and wealth management services. Power Financial (Toronto symbol PWF) owns 67.6% of the company. In August 2007, Great-West acquired U.S. mutual fund manager Putnam Investments. That business has suffered lately as investors pulled their money out of Putnam’s funds to put in to cheaper exchange-traded funds. Those ETFs are increasingly popular. In response, the company now plans to cut 8% of Putnam’s workforce. It hopes that this will lower losses for that business by cutting $65 million U.S. from its annual expenses. To put that figure in context, Great-West earned $674 million (Canadian), or $0.68 a share, in the third quarter of 2016. That was down 6.4%, from $720 million a year earlier. The decline…