AIG may add units for sale to repay loan

Some analysts have said AIG could be forced to sell all of its subsidiaries to repay an $85 billion US loan. (STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images)

NEW YORK - American International Group head Edward Liddy, who promised investors a smaller, nimbler company after selling units to repay an $85 billion US loan, has shareholders wondering if there will be anything left to run.

Liddy, 62, needs to raise cash quickly because AIG has already borrowed $44.6 billion and will owe at least $8 billion in annual interest charges. He'll have to sell AIG's aircraft leasing unit, its US life insurance division, reinsurer Transatlantic Holdings Inc., and an auto insurance unit, said analyst Gary Ransom of Fox-Pitt Kelton Cochran Caronia Waller.

"The US didn't give AIG a subsidy meant to keep the company afloat," said Keith Wirtz, who helps manage $21 billion as chief investment officer of Fifth Third Asset Management in Cincinnati. "Rather, the terms of that loan are saying that the company is to be broken into pieces and sold off."

Liddy, the former Allstate Corp. chief executive appointed to AIG in the takeover, must reassure clients and employees the largest US insurer by assets will survive after making good on its debts. The firm, which agreed Sept. 16 to give the government a 79.9 percent stake in exchange for loans requiring annual interest payments of at least 8.5 percent, may unveil which units are for sale today.

AIG hired JPMorgan Chase & Co. to find buyers for the US life insurance and annuities businesses, three people familiar with the situation said. Selling the units would be a reversal for Liddy who has said his priority is to keep property and casualty and life insurance operations.

AIG is considering "strategic alternatives" for its 59 percent stake in Transatlantic, the reinsurer said in a Sept. 29 filing. AIG has agreed to sell its 50 percent ownership of the London City Airport. Spokesman Joseph Norton declined to comment.

The insurer may hold onto just its commercial property-casualty units, Ransom said in a Sept. 24 note. Other analysts, including Morgan Stanley's Nigel Dally, have said AIG could be forced to sell all of its subsidiaries to repay the United States.

AIG advanced 5 cents to $4 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have plunged more than 90 percent this year.

Rivals may want underwriting units that remained profitable as AIG was overwhelmed by losses on holdings tied to US mortgages. Billionaire Warren Buffett told CNBC Sept. 24 that his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. may consider buying some AIG units, without naming which ones.