John Hancock Plans to Go Public

John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Co. said it plans to convert into a publicly traded company in order to make acquisitions and raise capital. Its 5 million policyholders would get shares, cash or other compensation in the conversion, which could take more than two years to complete. Boston-based Hancock is the ninth-largest U.S. insurer and has 3,100 full-time salespeople. It derives more than half its profit from sales of individual life insurance, annuities and long-term-care products, and it has about $116 billion in assets under management. Mutual insurers, those owned by policyholders, are converting to public companies in order to use stock to buy rivals and pay executives. By deciding to fully convert to stock ownership, 136-year-old Hancock signaled that it doesn’t plan to use a strategy that would allow it to both sell stock and remain a mutual insurer--a process that has been criticized by consumer groups as unfair to policyholders.