AIG Takes Step Toward Selling Second Asia Life Insurer
January 22 2009 - 11:41AM
Dow Jones News
Three months after it first outlined its plan to sell off much
of the company in order to pay back a $60 billion government loan,
American International Group (AIG) has taken a step towards
unloading one of its core businesses, a China-based life insurance
unit.
In October, Edward M. Liddy, the chairman and chief executive of
AIG, said the company would sell off a minority stake in AIA, the
leading life insurer in Southeast Asia. It also would sell outright
its other Asia-based life insurance businesses: American Life
Insurance Company, known as ALICO, AIG Star, and AIG Edison.
On Wednesday, AIG sent out a sales memorandum covering its AIA
business to a group of potential buyers, according to a report
Thursday by the Financial Times. Earlier this month, AIG sent out
similar information for ALICO, which is expected to sell for as
much as $10.6 billion. ALICO operates in 55 countries, including
Japan, where it is the largest of AIG's three life insurance
businesses.
Potential bidders include China Life Insurance Co., HSBC
Holdings Plc (HBC) U.K. insurer Prudential Plc, and Prudential
Financial (PRU) of the U.S. The Financial Times reported that
insurer ManuLife Financial and Allianz AG (AZ) have also requested
information. First-round bids are due near the end of next
month.
"Assets like AIA and ALICO are businesses that are available
only once in an executive's lifetime," Liddy told the Hong Kong
general chamber of commerce in a speech in December. "They simply
could not be recreated today. We expect leaders who want to
transform their businesses in Asia will be most eager to bid on
these assets."
An AIG spokeswoman said the company wouldn't comment on the
progress of its asset sales.
-By Lavonne Kuykendall, Dow Jones Newswires; 312-750-4141;
lavonne.kuykendall@dowjones.com
(Victoria Howley contributed to this report.)
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