Chinatrust Financial Holding Company, the biggest credit card issuer of Taiwan , said on Tuesday that it will buy a 30% stake in American International Group Inc.'s (AIG) Taiwan life insurance unit, Nan Shan Life Insurance Company, for $660 million from Hong Kong-based China Strategic Holdings.  On Oct 12, 2009, AIG announced the sale of its 98% stake in Nan Shan to an investor group consisting of China Strategic and Hong Kong-based Primus Financial for about $2.15 billion. This amount was lower than Chinatrust’s bid but, Chinatrust lost its bid to buy the business. As a result, Chinatrust was considering legal action against AIG.  In exchange for the Nan Shan deal, China Strategic would take a 9.95% Chinatrust stake, worth about 20.8 billion New Taiwan dollars ($647 million). According to Chinatrust management, the transaction will combine Chinatrust’s distribution network and Nan Shan ’s customer base to ...

Moody's Investor Service (MCO) analysts said on Monday that American International Group Inc. (AIG) will probably have the ability to fully repay the bailout money and buy back much of the government's stake in the company as it continues to stabilize its core insurance operations and progress on its restructuring plan. AIG, which received about $180 billion of federal bailout including more than $80 billion in loans, has also been working for the last several quarters to sell assets and streamline its operations in an effort to repay the bailout money. U.S. taxpayers now own 80% of the company. During the third quarter, AIG remained profitable for the second consecutive quarter. The company’s third-quarter operating earnings of $1.9 billion ($2.85 per share) were substantially ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.20. This also compares favorably with the operating loss of $9.2 billion or $68.36 ...

American International Group Inc. (AIG) said on Friday that it is paying $12.1 million in retention awards to some of its top executives. The company took this decision after it got approval from U.S. pay czar Kenneth Feinberg, who is scrutinizing the pay practices of the seven companies including AIG that received the biggest federal aid.   Chief Financial Officer David Herzog received $1 million and Kristian Moor, Chief Executive of AIG's property-casualty division, received $1.6 million. Jay Wintrob, CEO of AIG's domestic life and retirement services also received a payment. The payments were promised in 2008 to retain key employees.   Previously, U.S. Treasury Department pressed AIG to reduce $198 million in scheduled retention payments after the government missed the opportunity to defend against controversial bonuses paid to AIG employees last year.  However, AIG is currently trying to repay $85 billion it had borrowed from the ...