AIG's Sale of Asia Unit Will Be Among Largest Public Offerings, Walsh Says
American International Group Inc.’s planned initial public offering of its main Asia division will be among the world’s largest share sales, according to Nicholas Walsh, head of the insurer’s non-U.S. property-casualty unit.
“It would be reasonable to compare the size of a likely IPO with some of the larger IPOs of the past,” Walsh said today at an Insurance Insider conference in London. “We can think in terms of the Visa IPO, which I think was the largest in history at the time.”
AIG is selling shares in AIA Group Ltd., Asia’s third- biggest life insurer, to help repay the U.S. government’s $182.3 billion rescue. A $35.5 billion bid from Prudential Plc collapsed in June as the U.K. insurer’s investors rejected the deal. Visa Inc. raised $19.7 billion in March 2008, the largest stock offering in the U.S., and Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. raised about $22.1 billion this year.
AIG’s board rejected a revised offer from Prudential of $30.4 billion in June and opted for an IPO in Hong Kong, where AIA is based. AIG, which may maintain a stake in AIA after an offering, plans to hold the sale “as soon as practical, subject of course to regulatory approvals and market conditions,” Chief Executive Officer Robert Benmosche said last month.
“You know what the market view of the value, more or less, of the company is, because of what happened with Pru,” Walsh said. “A percentage of that is probably going to be in the right-thinking area.”
AIA has more than 23 million customers and offices in at least 15 countries including China, India and Australia. The unit had about $1.44 billion in operating profit in 2009, down from $1.59 billion in 2008, Prudential said in a March filing.
Walsh spoke at the conference in place of Benmosche.
To contact the reporter on this story: Kevin Crowley in London at kcrowley1@bloomberg.net
Rate These Stories
Rate this Page