Financial Accuracy

American International Group Inc. has made two big sales in the last week in order to pay their debt to the government.

The first big sale was the purchase of AIG’s Asian life insurance to Britain’s Prudential for $35.5 billion. This was the largest insurance exchange in history.

The foreign life insurance part of the company will be sold to MetLife Inc for close to $15.5 billion with $6.8 billion in cash and $8.7 billion in equity.

AIG owes $31.5 billion to the government in cash following a $182.3 billion bailout. These sales will allow AIG to pay the government back fully, but the government will still hold an 80 percent stake in AIG due to the $47 billion they hold in equity investments.

Chief Executive of MetLife, Robert Henrikson, commented on their purchase saying, “With this acquisition, MetLife is delivering on its strategy to accelerate international expansion as a powerful growth engine for the company.”

However, many people fear MetLife will face hard times because of this purchase. Clark Troy, senior analyst at the Aite Group, said, “If (Japan) falters or slips back into deflation, MetLife might face challenges growing revenue.”