Genworth Financial Inc said it would take steps to distance itself from its troubled mortgage insurance business, following investor demands to spin off the unit, sending its shares up 11 percent.Genworth's shareholders -- including hedge fund Highfields Capital Management -- had been asking the company to consider options for the unit, or take other steps to insulate itself from the loss-making business.Bond rating firm Moody's piled on the pressure in September when it said it would likely downgrade Genworth unless the company could protect itself from continuing losses from its mortgage insurance (MI) unit.Genworth's new plan, disclosed a month after it named former ING executive Thomas McInerney as chief executive, transfers the ownership of the company's European MI subsidiaries to the U.S. MI unit.
Genworth Financial, Inc. (Genworth) is a financial security company. Shares of GNW traded higher by 12.55% or $1.02/share to $9.15. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $4.06 and as high as $9.68. On average, 10162500 shares of GNW exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 6928447.
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