Radian (NYSE: RDN) shareholder seeks more information to help sale

Palm Beach, FL 5/21/12 (StreetBeat) -- Radian Group Inc (NYSE: RDN) shareholder Clinton Group pushed the mortgage insurer to disclose more information about its business to potential suitors, saying it was aware of at least one former industry executive keen on acquiring the company.

In a letter to the company, asset manager Clinton said the potential suitor had expressed serious interest in acquiring Radian at a price significantly above its current trading level.

Radian shares, which traded at more than $60 before the housing meltdown in 2007, opened up 6 percent at $2.15 on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday.

Clinton asked Radian to give shareholders sufficient data about its legacy mortgage insurance and other business for estimating potential liabilities of the company.

Clinton Group has a 1.4 percent stake in the company, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Radian and its rivals MGIC Investment Corp (NYSE: MTG) and Genworth Inc (NYSE: GNW) insure home loans when the down payments are less than a fifth of the property's price.

These insurers underwrote millions of mortgages at low premiums in the heady days of the housing boom. But the wave of foreclosures, unleashed by the crisis that followed, hit their capital levels and raised their risk ratios.

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Genworth (NYSE: GNW) Surges as Insurer Swings to Profit

Northern, WI 2/3/12 (StreetBeat) -- Genworth Financial Inc. (NYSE: GNW), the mortgage guarantor and life insurer, posted the biggest gain in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index after swinging to a fourth-quarter profit on fewer claims tied to delinquent borrowers.

The insurer rose 15 percent to $9.26 at 10 a.m. in New York. Net income in the three months ended Dec. 31 was $107 million, or 22 cents a share, compared with a loss of $161 million, or 33 cents, a year earlier, Richmond, Virginia-based Genworth said late yesterday.

Chief Executive Officer Michael Fraizer, 53, has scaled back the retirement-products business to conserve capital as Genworth seeks to maintain sales of U.S. mortgage coverage. The company has no plans to add more capital to the U.S. mortgage insurance operation, Fraizer said today.

“In U.S. mortgage insurance, we saw improved financial performance over the past two quarters,” Fraizer said in a conference call today with analysts. “We continue to see adequate claims-paying ability and positive value in the business platform.”

Rival mortgage insurers Radian Group Inc. (NYSE: RDN) and Milwaukee- based MGIC Investment Corp. (NYSE: MTG) also rallied more than 7 percent today. American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG), which sells mortgage coverage in addition to life insurance and property-casualty policies, climbed 3 percent.

Genworth’s mortgage-insurance segment’s operating loss narrowed to $94 million in the fourth quarter from $352 million a year earlier, the company said. The firm, which tightened underwriting standards after the housing-market collapse, is benefitting from an increase in mortgage refinancing and a shift from Federal Housing Administration coverage to private insurance, Genworth said in a statement yesterday.

‘Very Profitable’

“Our post-2008 books of business are very profitable, significantly outperforming expectations,” Fraizer said today.

Mortgage insurers pay lenders when homeowners default and foreclosures fail to recoup costs. Competitors PMI Group Inc. and Triad Guaranty Inc. were forced by regulators to stop selling new coverage when capital fell short of required levels. Genworth has benefited from results in other businesses and outside the U.S.

Profit at the U.S. life insurance unit, which includes results from fixed annuities and long-term care coverage, gained 14 percent to $114 million. International mortgage insurance declined 20 percent to $78 million.

Genworth, which dropped by half last year, gained 23 percent from Dec. 31 through yesterday.

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Radian Group Inc. (NYSE: RDN) Reports Higher Q3 Profits, Trading +18%

Tallahassee, FL 11/1/11 (StreetBeat) -- U.S. mortgage insurer Radian Group Inc (NYSE: RDN) reported a higher third-quarter profit, as it recorded gains from securities, spent less on claims and set aside less money on loss provisions.

Radian paid $329.9 million in mortgage insurance claims in the quarter, down from $494.2 million a year ago. It expects to pay claims of $400 million in the fourth quarter. The Philadelphia-based company expects to write new mortgage insurance worth more than $5 billion in the fourth quarter as well.

Radian, which competes with MGIC Investment Corp , PMI Group and Genworth Financial , said its risk-to-capital ratio rose to 21.4 to 1 at Sept. 30 from 19.8 to 1 at June 30. The maximum permissible risk-to-capital ratio for mortgage insurers in most states is 25 to 1.

MGIC, Radian, PMI Group, Genworth and Old Republic International Corp insured millions of mortgages during the housing boom. But when the loans went bust, they were left taking large losses, lowering their capital and raising risk ratios. Rival MGIC posted a wider-than-expected quarterly loss in October, hurt by higher defaults, and reported a risk-to-capital ratio that is inching towards the maximum permissible limit. At the end of September, MGIC Investment's combined insurance operations' risk-to-capital ratio was 24 to 1. PMI Group's main unit was seized by Arizona insurance regulators, two months after two of its units were stopped from writing new insurance due to their failure to meet capital requirements.

Radian's July-September profit rose to $183.6 million, or $1.37 per share, from $112.2 million, or 84 cents per share, last year. Third-quarter earnings included a gain from securities of about $206.6 million. New mortgage insurance written by the second largest mortgage insurer in the United States rose to $4.1 billion in the quarter from $3.2 billion a year ago. Radian's provision for losses fell almost 28 percent to $249.6 million from last year.

Radian's shares, which have lost almost three-fourths of their value since the beginning of the year, are currently trading at $2.79, up 18% on the day. They closed at $2.35 on Monday on the New York Stock Exchange.

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