NU Online News Service, Sept. 20, 1:54 p.m.EDT

The Treasury Department said it will sell more than 52 millionshares of The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. warrants itholds that could garner the U.S. government about $547 million.

Tomorrow, the Treasury Department said it will commence asecondary public offering of more than 52 million warrants topurchase the common stock in a modified Dutch auction.

The sale will begin at 8 a.m. EDT and close at 6:30 p.m. EDT.Potential bidders for the warrants can place bids at any price, inincrements of 10 cents a share, at or above the minimum bid priceof $10.50 per warrant.

Proceeds of the sale will provide a return to taxpayers forTreasury's investment in the company in addition to dividendpayments it received, the Treasury Department said.

Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. will manage the sale. AladdinCapital LLC, Cabrera Capital Markets LLC, Lebentahl & Co. LLC,Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. LLC and SL Hare Capital Inc. are theco-managers.

The Hartford borrowed $3.4 billion from the Treasury last yearunder the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

In March, the company said it would raise the money with anoffering of $1.45 billion of common stock, $500 of mandatoryconvertible preferred stock and $425 million in cash, for a totalof $2.4 billion.

The 52 million warrants were given to Treasury to secure theTARP money. The Hartford stated in March that it had no intentionof buying back the warrants from the Treasury.