AIG's CFO Is Latest Pick Under New Chief -- WSJ
December 05 2018 - 3:02AM
Dow Jones News
By Tatyana Shumsky and Leslie Scism
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (December 5, 2018).
American International Group Inc. on Tuesday named Mark Lyons
chief financial officer, the latest executive appointment under new
Chief Executive Brian Duperreault.
Mr. Lyons, who served as a senior vice president and chief
actuary for general insurance since joining AIG in June, succeeds
Sid Sankaran effective immediately.
Mr. Sankaran had been AIG's CFO since 2016. He will remain with
the company as an adviser through the year-end reporting process
for the 2018 fiscal year.
A representative from AIG declined to comment beyond the
announcement, which didn't specify what prompted the move.
The departure isn't unexpected to some industry observers, who
had thought it likely that Mr. Duperreault, who became CEO in May
2017, at some point would focus his attention on the finance
department. The move follows a wave of hiring that has installed
new leadership throughout the core unit that sells
property-casualty policies to businesses, and indicates the finance
department is now in line for an updating aimed at overhauling the
delivery of financial data.
Meyer Shields, an analyst with Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, said
he expects AIG's shares to trade up on Thursday, when the New York
Stock Exchange reopens. He said investors appropriately "hold Mr.
Lyons in high esteem following his very successful tenure" as CFO
at Arch Capital Group Ltd.
"We think that both his skill set and reputation will enhance
confidence in AIG's turnaround prospects," Mr. Shields said in a
note.
Mr. Lyon's appointment serves as Mr. Duperreault putting his
person in the top finance role, and he is likely to slide into the
role easily, said Elyse Greenspan, an analyst at Wells Fargo
Securities LLC.
Ms. Greenspan said in a note that she doesn't believe the change
portends a potentially large charge to bolster reserves. In his
capacity as actuary, Mr. Lyons spoke about AIG's reserves on its
last earnings call. "Mr. Lyons has already stated that while AIG
still needs to review 25% of the reserves, he sees 'no material red
flags' on these reserves," analyst Thomas Gallagher of Evercore ISI
said in a note.
AIG reported a $1.26 billion net loss in its third quarter, on
the back of insurance claims related to Asian typhoons, California
mudslides and Hurricane Florence in the southeastern U.S. Still,
this was a narrower loss than in the same period of 2017, when the
company posted a $1.74 billion loss after three hurricanes in a row
slammed the Caribbean and the southern U.S.
AIG's results have lagged behind many of its rivals ever since
the global financial crisis of 2008, when the New York-based
company received one of the biggest federal bailouts. AIG fully
repaid the nearly $185 billion by the end of 2012, cutting itself
roughly in half through sales of businesses and individual
assets.
Write to Tatyana Shumsky at tatyana.shumsky@wsj.com and Leslie
Scism at leslie.scism@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 05, 2018 02:47 ET (07:47 GMT)
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