| Aetna announced Wednesday that it is in negotiations to move its headquarters out of Connecticut’s capital, where it has been based for almost two centuries.
Mark Bertolini, CEO of the insurance giant, said Wednesday that the company is in negotiations with several states about moving its corporate base, with the goal of broadening access to innovation and talent that will fill “knowledge economy-type” positions.
Aetna, the nation’s third-largest health insurer, has a workforce of almost 50,000 and employs about 6,000 people in Connecticut. It traces its roots in Hartford to 1819.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Connecticut is working to ensure Aetna will remain a major employer in the state and has offered it incentives “including matching anything put on the table from a competing state in order to keep Aetna’s headquarters and jobs here in Connecticut.”
Malloy said in a statement that the state also has promised to bolster workforce development around Aetna’s needs, improve transportation in the region “make our state an even better and more responsive marketplace for them and other insurers.”
But the governor acknowledged the company has not responded to the offer and likely will move its headquarters and some jobs to a major urban center. “Hartford is not ever going to be New York or Boston,” he said.
Aetna would join General Electric as a longtime Connecticut corporation moving out of the state. GE, which had been based in Fairfield, broke ground on its new corporate headquarters in Boston earlier in May.
Massachusetts lured GE from Connecticut with the help of $120 million in state incentives and $25 million in city property tax relief.
Aetna Fire Insurance Co. started in Hartford in 1819. In 1853, its annuity department was separated from the fire insurer and incorporated as Aetna Life Insurance Co. It opened its current headquarters 1930, touting it at the time as the largest office building in the state.
Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin said after meeting with senior company officials he believes Aetna has already made the decision to leave Connecticut and the move is another sign the state needs to do more to bolster its cities.
“We don’t have to be New York or Boston to be competitive, but we have to recognize that strong, fiscally sound, culturally vibrant metropolitan areas are key to economic growth,” he said in a statement.
The company has announced it will leave the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance exchanges for next year after absorbing steep losses. That coverage represents a fraction of the company’s overall business, which generated a $2.27 billion in profit last year.
Aetna shares have climbed 21 percent over the past year and closed at $144.86 on Wednesday.
