Insurer Aflac Inc. said this week that it stands to lose around $67 million in sales of Greek bonds to cut down on its European debt exposure. It owns roughly $12 billion in European government and corporate securities, a figure that the company would like to cut down. Aflac shares have struggled over the last three months as European economies such as Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Ireland have been battered by the European debt crisis.
In a statement Monday, the company said that it has sold all of its $270 million in Greek debt holdings, but stands to incur an aftertax loss of $67 million due to the recent market downturn. “As a result of extensive credit analysis, we believed it was prudent to trim our exposures to eurozone sovereign debt,” Aflac Chief Financial Officer Kriss Cloninger said in a statement.
