AIG restarts talks with Metlife for sale of Alico: report

Troubled insurance firm AIG has re-initiated talks with its rival Metlife for the sale of American life insurance firm Alico, in an effort to raise over $15 billion for repayment of funds it owes to taxpayers in America, says a media report.

"AIG has rekindled talks with MetLife, its US rival, over the sale of American Life Insurance Company, one of the jewels in its crown, in a move that could help the stricken insurer raise more than $15 billion to repay the $80 billion it currently owes US taxpayers," British daily The Financial Times has said.

Quoting people close to the situation, the report said that the talks over Alico, which has operations in more than 50 countries outside the US, are preliminary and could founder as they did earlier this year when the two sides disagreed on price.

Alico's attractions are its vast geographical scope and exposure to the huge growth potential of emerging economies.

After AIG received its fourth bail-out from the government in March, it halted talks for all or parts of Alico with potential bidders, including France's Axa, Prudential of the UK and China Investment Corp, the state investment fund, and MetLife, the report said.

The report noted AIG is in the process of spinning off the unit into a separate entity partly owned by the Federal Reserve, in preparation for a listing. AIG has said it is open to offers for Alico, whose largest operations are in Japan.

Prudential, Axa and CIC are currently not interested, the daily said citing people close to the situation.

In recent weeks, MetLife and AIG have been talking again amid hopes that an improvement in credit markets might help the two sides bridge the price gap, bankers said.

The report stated that before talks broke off in March, MetLife was believed to have tabled an offer of about $11 billion for Alico, with AIG expecting roughly $20 billion.

Quoting people close to the situation the FT said: "Although AIG would still like to get more than $15 billion for Alico it was interested in exploring a sale, partly because it was coming under increasing pressure from the government to speed up disposals."

MetLife might be interested in buying only some of Alico's sprawling operations, although AIG is believed to prefer a sale of the whole business. It is unclear whether MetLife would use shares as part-payment in any bid for Alico, the report noted.