Treasury Selling $4.5 Billion More In AIG Shares

American International Group, Inc. (NYSE: AIG) is just one more step closer to being a self-governing company without the oversight of taxpayers and the government.  Still, AIG owes all of us taxpayers but it is about to owe us less.  The United States Treasury has announced that it is going to sell $4.5 billion worth of AIG shares of common stock.  The Treasury said that AIG intends to repurchase $3 billion directly to avoid any market dilution.

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C), Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE: DB), Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS), and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) have been hired as the joint book-runners for this offering.

This would mark the third time that the United States Treasury has sold shares and this gets the ownership down just that much more.  AIG shares were halted and since its earnings report the shares have remained mostly positive and shares were at $31.16 after a $0.32 gain on the day before the shares were halted for trading.

It seems unlikely that the government’s stake (a loan call it) will be paid down entirely before the election and it probably will not be paid down this year.  Still, this is the third such secondary offering and it appears that the price will be better this time around.

JON C. OGG