Narrower focus will help both of them

Article Excerpt

Insurer Great-West and mutual fund seller IGM are re-organizing their operations. These moves will let them better focus on their main businesses and spur their long-term profits. However, we prefer IGM for your new buying. GREAT-WEST LIFECO INC. $44 is a hold. The insurer (Toronto symbol GWO; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Finance sector; shares outstanding: 930.6 million; Market cap: $40.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.6; Dividend yield: 4.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.greatwestlifeco.com) has recently completed several acquisitions as part of a plan to diversify its operations. Those include Investment Planning Counsel Inc. (IPC), which it recently bought from IGM Financial (see right) for $575 million. IPC provides a variety of wealth management and planning services through 650 financial advisors. Great-West is also selling its U.S.-based Putnam Investments mutual fund business to Franklin Resources, Inc. (New York symbol BEN), which operates as Franklin Templeton. It will receive between $1.7 billion U.S. and $1.8 billion U.S. in cash and Franklin shares. Meantime, Great-West reported total revenue of $3.37…