GNW --- "Screw you guys, I'm going home"

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Q4 Earnings Transcript

A few quotes:

"As we noted on prior occasions, CPP participation by way of a thrift acquisition was only one of the strategic levers Genworth has considered to provide another level of capital flexibility to address unforeseen events, and the nature of that program has continued to evolve," said Michael D. Fraizer, Genworth chief executive officer. "Since Genworth's initial CPP application in November, we have made significant progress enhancing our capital levels and flexibility using various strategies including reinsurance, refinements in targeted markets, dividend reductions, risk mitigation and expense streamlining. Genworth will continue to benefit from these actions. In addition, we remain comfortable with our target of a consolidated life insurance company risk-based capital ratio of 350 percent or above for year end 2009. We ended 2008 with about $2.0 billion of capital across Genworth in excess of levels required for targeted ratings or regulatory requirements. We continue to progress in our evaluation of additional strategic opportunities ranging from selected asset sales to other governmental programs that could provide additional financial flexibility, and we will pursue these where we believe it makes sense."

Genworth will report first quarter operating results in early May and will provide additional comments as appropriate at that time.

In a related development, Genworth Financial Inc. (GNW) has decided not to participate in the TARP program, saying that its efforts to improve its financial position are working. The Journal notes that the company had few other options.

"Treasury officials told life insurers in late 2008 they could be eligible for federal assistance if they owned bank-holding companies," according to the Journal. "However, Genworth said it was informed by Treasury on Thursday that the deadline it set for approval by the Office of Thrift Supervision to become a bank-holding company wouldn't be extended."

Currently a $1.19B company with a stock price of $2.75 Looks to me like a survival PE of about 1 Also looks to me like 1/9 of Revenues Also 0.1334 of Book value

Quick Glance, I think we have a surviver!

Now, granted, this thing isn't growing like CNO, but I'll take it! I don't think that GNW really needed this TARP money. I think it's going home and sitting on a huge quarterly earnings surprise like it's a golden egg. Odds are that if a company really needs something to survive, it's a high priority and GNW would have clawed tooth and nail to get that "oh help me, i'm drowning" TARP bailout status.