According to Bloomberg news, sourced from people familiar with the ongoing proceedings at Hartford Financial Services Group Inc, the company is seeking bids for its flagship property insurance business, from its closest competitors, including Travelers Cos and Ace Ltd.

With Hartford having supposedly solicited offers for its money-spinning property and casualty division, largely due to blows from credit downgrades after losses in its life division; the value of the Hartford division in question has been valued by a Citigroup estimate as between $4 billion and $8 billion.

Sources told Bloomberg that Hartford's earlier efforts to sell a portion of its life insurance unit to Canadian Sun Life Financial Inc have ended on a sour note. In fact, the solicitation of offers is an indication that the company's dire financial straits may result in an indiscriminate breakup of the 199-year-old insurer.

However, it is being said that Hartford's frantic attempts to strike a sale deal for its businesses with prospective buyers could well be averted in case the insurer is provided the requisite sustenance support from the US Treasury.

As per CEO Ramani Ayer, the company stands to get as much as $3.4 billion under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) - a program which the Treasury has used to support banks, but has yet to extend it to insurers, excluding American International Group Inc.!