Uncle Sam Should Unload More AIG Shares

American International Group, Inc. (NYSE: AIG) has managed to hold up exceptionally well since its last secondary offering held by the U.S. Treasury.  We said it at the time of the offering that the market reaction was strong enough that the taxpayers could have sold more shares than what was sold. Could another share sale come sooner than expected?

The $5.75 billion offering was the best of the three government offerings if you consider how the market treated the sale.  Taxpayers (or the Treasury) saw their percentage of ownership go down from about 61% down to about 53% on this last offering.  After this offering, Uncle Sam has sold roughly 784 million common shares in AIG and it has received back some $23.3 billion since May of 2011.

CEO Robert Benmosche has proven to be a very capable leader for AIG.  In fact, that makes him the taxpayer’s champion because the taxpayers are selling shares at a profit.  What helped drive the gains in the shares was that AIG was actually buying shares directly to retire them.

The official sale was for 164 million shares and the price went off at $30.50 per share.  Shares had closed at $31.34 the session before, but a 2.5% gain on Tuesday now has the stock up 2.6% at $33.97 so far today.

If the market will endorse it with this much enthusiasm, maybe Uncle Sam should too.

JON C. OGG