NEW YORK, May 28 (Reuters) - American International Group said on Thursday it would sell about two-thirds of its stake in reinsurer Transatlantic Holdings Inc, a move that could raise nearly $1 billion to help repay the U.S. government, which bailed out AIG.
AIG is launching the secondary sale of shares about seven months after it first said it would sell the stake.
The sale could raise the proceeds of AIG's total asset sales to in excess of $6 billion, a fraction of the total the company needs to repay taxpayers.
The company, once the world's largest insurer, has had to broadly redraw its divestiture plans after funding dried up for buyers amid the financial crisis. It has now opted to look at public offerings instead of outright sales for other businesses as well.
AIG, which now has borrowed about $85 billion in federal funds, is launching a secondary public offering of 26 million of its 39.1 million shares of Transatlantic common stock. The sale would decrease AIG's stake to 19.7 percent from the current 59 percent.
It said it had filed a preliminary prospectus supplement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for the proposed public offering, which includes shares held directly by AIG and subsidiaries.
Transatlantic will not sell any shares in the offering.
The underwriters in the offering are JPMorgan Securities , Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Lazard Capital Markets. If they fully exercise their option on the sale, AIG's stake in Transatlantic would drop to 13.9 percent.
(Reporting by Lilla Zuill, Paritosh Bansal and Jonathan Spicer, editing by Dave Zimmerman) Keywords: AIG TRANSATLANTIC/ (lilla.zuill@thomsonreuters.com;+1 646 223 6281) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
AIG is launching the secondary sale of shares about seven months after it first said it would sell the stake.
The sale could raise the proceeds of AIG's total asset sales to in excess of $6 billion, a fraction of the total the company needs to repay taxpayers.
The company, once the world's largest insurer, has had to broadly redraw its divestiture plans after funding dried up for buyers amid the financial crisis. It has now opted to look at public offerings instead of outright sales for other businesses as well.
AIG, which now has borrowed about $85 billion in federal funds, is launching a secondary public offering of 26 million of its 39.1 million shares of Transatlantic common stock. The sale would decrease AIG's stake to 19.7 percent from the current 59 percent.
It said it had filed a preliminary prospectus supplement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for the proposed public offering, which includes shares held directly by AIG and subsidiaries.
Transatlantic will not sell any shares in the offering.
The underwriters in the offering are JPMorgan Securities , Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Lazard Capital Markets. If they fully exercise their option on the sale, AIG's stake in Transatlantic would drop to 13.9 percent.
(Reporting by Lilla Zuill, Paritosh Bansal and Jonathan Spicer, editing by Dave Zimmerman) Keywords: AIG TRANSATLANTIC/ (lilla.zuill@thomsonreuters.com;+1 646 223 6281) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
© 2009 AFX News
