Allstate Shuns Bond Market Food Fight to Seek Hard Assets
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Allstate Corp. Chief Executive Officer Thomas Wilson is cutting longer-term bonds from the insurer’s $77.7 billion fixed-income portfolio as he seeks to invest in hotels and toll roads with yields near record lows.
The largest publicly traded U.S. auto and home insurer is shifting course three years after Wilson correctly predicted that yields would fall and boost the portfolio’s value. The assets have rebounded from more than $9 billion in unrealized losses at the end of March 2009 to almost $6 billion in gains as of Sept. 30, according to regulatory filings.