March 10 (Bloomberg) -- American International Group Inc.’s Alico life-insurance unit isn’t under pressure to be bought and is still expanding across western Europe after its parent company got a fourth U.S. government bailout.

“There’s no reason to make a garage sale,” Marc Sevestre, president of AIG’s life companies in continental western Europe, said in a phone interview from Paris today. “It seems wise to wait to get an offer corresponding to our real market value,” he said, adding that sale talks are continuing “in an orderly way.”

Alico’s profit after tax this year will probably rise by 10 percent to 12 percent in western European markets excluding the U.K. and Ireland, Sevestre said. Revenue will probably gain at a “high single-digit growth” rate, he estimated.

“We see a slowdown compared with our historical growth trend because of the economic environment and the drop in real- estate and consumer-credit markets,” Sevestre said. The western European operations, with more than 5 million clients in countries such as France, Spain and Portugal, should return next year to the “historical growth rate” of 2005-2007, he added.

Alico’s western European business had revenue growth of 26 percent on average between 2005 and 2007, while profit rose about 20 percent annually over the same period, Sevestre said. The life-insurance operations in the region have a solvency level four times higher than required by regulators.

Two Bidders

AIG halted “active communications” with two unnamed bidders for Alico, Dennis Vigneau, the unit’s chief financial officer, said March 3. MetLife Inc. made a preliminary offer of $11.2 billion for Alico and Axa SA put in a bid that excluded the Japanese operations, three people familiar with the matter said last month.

AIG has agreed to place Alico and American International Assurance Co. into trusts as it seeks to pay down its federal credit line and repay taxpayers.

“We’re going to abandon completely the AIG brand in Europe over the coming weeks to return to our historical and corporate name, Alico,” Sevestre said. The AIG brand in Europe “had a strong name recognition, especially with the sponsorship of the soccer club Manchester United.”

Alico, or American Life Insurance Co., operates in 55 countries worldwide. It posted profit of $1.3 billion in 2008, according to Sevestre.

To contact the reporter on this story: Fabio Benedetti-Valentini in Paris at fabiobv@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: March 10, 2009 11:46 EDT