AIG Takes Step Toward Selling Second Asia Life Insurer

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; [e-mail]

(Victoria Howley contributed to this report.)

Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.