Troubled AIG (NYSE: AIG) prefers a single buyer for most of its Latin American life insurance companies, the regional head of American Life Insurance Company (ALICO) Ricardo García told BNamericas.
AIG was bailed out last month by the US government through an US$85bn two-year loan through which the latter received a 79.9% stake in the insurer.
AIG has said it would sell off a number of business units worldwide - especially in ALICO - in 2009 to pay off the loan.
"The way [in which the sale is made] does matter because the maturities and size of AIG's obligations make large transactions highly recommendable," García said.
"Starting to make a company-by-company, country-by-country sale makes little sense," he said.
García oversees ALICO's Latin American units in Argentina, Belize, Colombia, Chile, Panama, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela and the Caribbean, in which the insurer operates through a mix of wholly owned subsidiaries and joint ventures.
The executive said he expects financial markets to find more stable ground next year.
"No one's going to buy companies today, the checks don't have to be filled tomorrow. If we had started this process a year ago and were in the closing phase now, then it would be complicated," he said.
AIG also operates in Brazil and Mexico and runs P&C companies in all the aforementioned countries.
Going forward, García said the remaining P&C units in the region will benefit as support from its parent company would be strengthened.
ALICO conducts business in more than 55 countries and regions including Japan, Western, Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and South Asia, providing wealth management, retirement planning, life and health insurance solutions.
Delaware-based ALICO operates through 39,000 brokers and serves some 20mn clients worldwide, last year making a US$2bn profit, according to García.
AIG hired The Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) and JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) to coordinate its asset sales.
On Thursday (Oct 9), the Fed agreed to lend US$37.8bn to some of AIG's US life insurance subsidiaries on top of the US$85bn facility made available last month.
According to new Fed data released late Thursday, the New York-based insurer had drawn an additional US$9bn on the initial loan, bringing the total amount drawn to US$70.3bn as of that day.
