AIG to Buy First Principles, Names New Investment Chief -- Update

By Chelsey Dulaney and Leslie Scism 

American International Group Inc. said Tuesday that it is buying First Principles Capital Management LLC and tapped the private-investment management firm's top executive as its new investment chief.

First Principles CEO Douglas A. Dachille will succeed William N. Dooley, 62 years old, who is retiring after nearly 40 years with AIG. Mr. Dachille, who is 51, will also become executive vice president.

The move will reunite Mr. Dachille and AIG Chief Executive Peter Hancock, who overlapped for more than a decade when working at the company known as J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., according to a company spokesman.

In 1991, Mr. Dachille started a hybrid derivatives unit within the group that Mr. Hancock was running.

After leaving J.P. Morgan, Mr. Dachille formed a partnership with Mr. Hancock and Roberto Mendoza, another alumnus of the bank, and Nobel Prize winner Robert Merton to buy Gen Re Securities from Berkshire Hathaway Inc. But the parties couldn't agree on terms, and Mr. Dachille left the partnership to join Zurich Capital Markets, where he was president.

In 2003, Mr. Dachille helped found First Principles, which he has led for the past 11 years.

First Principles, a fixed-income investment manager with about $10 billion in assets under management, serves clients, including endowments and pension plans.

The acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter of the year. First Principles will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of AIG. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

Write to Chelsey Dulaney at [e-mail] and Leslie Scism at [e-mail]

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