Brighthouse Buyout Comes Down to One Bidder and Plenty of Doubts

Back in January when news broke that Brighthouse Financial Inc. was seeking to sell itself, investors cheered and almost immediately bid up shares of the life insurer by 25%. Seven months later, there’s not so much to celebrate anymore.

Wall Street heavy hitters including Apollo Global Management Inc., Carlyle Group Inc. and TPG Inc.have passed on bidding for Brighthouse or dropped out, according to people familiar with the process, and the stock trades lower than before the takeover talk. This left the field to Aquarian Holdings, an 8-year-old investment firm that’s been snapping up smaller life insurers ...