A standard homeowners insurance policy includes four essential types of coverage. They include:
Homeowners
insurance provides financial protection against disasters. A standard
policy insures the home itself and the things you keep in it.
Homeowners insurance is a package policy ...
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Why should you get Home Insurance from the Insurance Company? First of all, it covers almost all damages to your house. Second, it is incredibly easy to get Home Insurance from the Insurance Company.
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TOKYO: Sony said Tuesday that it would sell about ¥332 billion of
shares in its insurance unit in the biggest initial public offering in
Japan this year.
In the offering, the equivalent of $2.9 billion, Sony said it would
sell 725,000 shares, or 34.5 percent of Sony Financial Holdings. The
unit, based in Tokyo, would offer 75,000 new shares. The shares might
be sold for about ¥415,000 each, with pricing set for Oct. 1. Trading
is to start Oct. 11 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The initial public offering of the unit, formed in 2004, will test demand for financial stocks roiled by losses in the U.S. subprime mortgage market. The proceeds may help the Sony chief executive, Howard Stringer, increase production of Bravia televisions and channel funds to the company's unprofitable PlayStation unit.
"Sony could use the funds for various options to strengthen its electronics and game businesses," said Mitsuhiro Osawa, an analyst in Tokyo for Mizuho Investors Securities. "A cut in the price of the PlayStation 3 is one option."
Shares of T&D Holdings, the only publicly traded Japanese life insurer, have fallen 15.5 percent so far this year, compared with a 4.7 percent decline in the Nikkei 225-stock average. The Topix banking index that tracks 85 banking shares has slid 20.7 percent.
"Investors are still concerned about the losses from subprime loans," said Wataru Kasatani, a financial analyst at Meiji Dresdner Asset Management. "The question for the Sony Financial IPO is how it can persuade investors that it is free from that concern."
JPMorgan Chase and Nomura Holdings are managing the sale, the biggest in Japan since Aozora Bank's ¥351 billion offering in November 2006.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, the largest Japanese bank, and six other lenders have reported combined losses of ¥18.7 billion linked to investments backed by subprime loans. That represents less than 0.2 percent of their combined holdings of asset-backed bonds as of March 31, bank documents show.
Shares of Mitsubishi UFJ have fallen 26 percent this year; Mizuho Financial Group, the second-largest Japanese bank, has dropped 15 percent; and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, the third largest, has slipped 27 percent.
Sony Financial will get about ¥31.1 billion from the stock sale and plans to invest ¥16.5 billion in a venture with Aegon, a Dutch insurer. The unit comprises Sony Life Insurance, the automobile insurer Sony Assurance and the online bank Sony Bank. The company started business in 1979 as an insurance venture of Sony and the Prudential Insurance Co. of America.
Net income dropped 13 percent to ¥10 billion for the year ended March 31 as the life-insurance unit increased policy reserves to pay future claims.
