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San Francisco
Returns on corporate debt including reinvested interest totaled 26 percent last year after an 11 percent loss in 2008, according to Merrill Lynch's U.S. Corporate & High Yield Master index. Life insurers may spend as much as $100 billion on corporate debt in the next 18 months, Barclays Capital credit strategists Matthew Mish and Alex Gennis wrote in a March 12 report.
Allstate, the biggest publicly traded U.S. home and auto insurer, cut back on commercial real estate and municipal bonds to buy corporate bonds. Of the $100 billion portfolio managed by Greffin, almost a third was corporate debt as of Dec. 31.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=anljLrBSc_D0&pos=12
