US Treasury to sell $18 billion of its stake in AIG
NEW YORK - The Associated Press
AIG has raised about $2 billion by selling part of its stake in its former unit AIA. REUTERS photo
The U.S. government is selling more of its shares in insurer American International Group (AIG), in a move that should decrease its holdings below a majority stake for the first time since the $182 billion bailout in 2008.The sale is the latest step to recoup taxpayer money spent on the largest bailout of the financial crisis.
AIG said on Sept. 9 that the Treasury Department is selling $18 billion worth of its common shares to institutional investors.
If there is more demand, the government will grant the underwriters a 30-day option to buy up to $2.7 billion more of its stake in the company.
AIG will buy back $5 bln
AIG said it will buy back $5 billion worth. The price is not yet determined.
The move should reduce the government’s stake in AIG to less than 20 percent of the insurer’s total outstanding stock. Right now, Treasury holds about 53 percent of the company, or more than 871 billion shares of common stock, worth about $30 billion.
The government has reduced its stake from 92 percent of the company, after selling shares four times in the last couple of years for a total of $23.3 billion. The most recent sale of about $5 billion was in early August.
AIG, which is based in New York, nearly collapsed in 2008. It received $182 billion from the U.S. government - the biggest of the Wall Street bailout packages - after suffering massive losses from investments in derivatives.
