Conseco Inc

Insurance company Conseco Inc. said Monday that it will concentrate on the retiree market by acquiring all or parts of four life and health insurance companies for about $1.76 billion in cash, stock and debt. With the acquisitions, about 80% of the business of Carmel, Ind.-based Conseco will be aimed at the retiree market, Chairman Stephen Hilbert said.

Conseco Inc. said New York Atty. Gen. Eliot Spitzer and federal regulators were investigating the sale of variable annuities by a unit it sold to Inviva Inc. in 2002. Last year, Spitzer and the Securities and Exchange Commission subpoenaed Conseco Variable Insurance Co., which was sold to Inviva for about $160 million before the company's bankruptcy filing, and Conseco Life Insurance Co., which the company still owns. Carmel, Ind.

Conseco Inc., the life insurer that emerged from bankruptcy protection in September, said Friday that New York Atty. Gen. Eliot Spitzer may take enforcement action against the company for alleged improper trading by holders of variable annuities it sold. Conseco also said it received a so-called Wells notice this month from the Securities and Exchange Commission, meaning that enforcement action is likely. The company, based in Carmel, Ind.

Conseco Inc.'s top finance executives made false statements to investors and the government throughout 1999, overstating results by hundreds of millions of dollars and hiding the insurance firm's skid toward a bankruptcy filing, regulators said Thursday.

The mutual fund trading scandal spread Monday to insurance companies and their annuity products, in what may be the first of a round of regulatory cases against the industry. Conseco Inc. and its successor in the variable annuities business, Inviva Inc., agreed to pay a total of $20 million to settle allegations by federal and state regulators that the companies allowed favored investors to improperly trade mutual funds linked to annuities.

Conseco Finance Corp., the mobile-home lender that drove parent Conseco Inc. into bankruptcy protection, accepted a $1.01-billion takeover offer from CFN Investments and a General Electric Co. unit. CFN, a venture capital firm, will pay $700 million in cash and GE Consumer Finance will buy Conseco's Mill Creek Bank unit for $310 million in a transaction that must be approved by the Bankruptcy Court.

nsurance firm Conseco Inc. on Monday asked bondholders for more time to repay as much as $2.54 billion of debt. The offer would replace existing bonds with securities that have identical principal amounts and interest rates, but mature one to two-and-a-half years later. The new securities would have priority if the company became insolvent. Conseco proposed the exchange as it tries to sell assets and boost earnings in the face of rising defaults on mobile-home loans it owns.

Conseco Inc., saying Chairman Gary Wendt's turnaround effort has failed, won't make some bond interest payments as the insurance and finance company asks lenders to restructure its $6.5 billion in debt. The value of Conseco's common stock probably will be wiped out, said Colin Devine, an analyst for Salomon Smith Barney Inc.

Conseco Inc. shares were suspended from trading by the New York Stock Exchange and may be delisted, the exchange said Monday. The move follows the insurance and finance company's announcement Friday that it won't make some bond payments and has asked its lenders to restructure its $6.5 billion in debt, the Big Board said. The exchange cited the company's failure to make the payments, as well as the "abnormally low selling price" of Conseco's shares, for the suspension.