By Jim Puzzanghera, Los Angeles Times –
WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department continued to wind down its stake in bailed-out insurance giant American International Group on Friday, announcing the sale of $4.5 billion of the company’s stock.
After the latest sale, there would be about $25.5 billion in taxpayer money still invested in AIG, which was rescued in a complex, multi-step bailout by the Treasury and Federal Reserve in 2008.
The government pledged more than $182 billion to AIG, which ended up taking about $125 billion in exchange for a 92 percent taxpayer stake in the company. Treasury and the Fed have been unwinding that stake through periodic sales since last year.
The latest sale would reduce the government’s 61 percent stake further, though the amount of the reduction would depend on the price at which the stock is sold.
AIG said it would purchase up to $3 billion of the Treasury’s shares. The rest would be sold on the open market.
The offering’s underwriters — Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Goldman, Sachs & Co., and JPMorgan Securities — have the option to purchase an additional $675 million in AIG stock from the Treasury over the next 30 days.
I hope for a higher price then what they paid