A powerful trio of American International Group shareholders including former AIG director Eli Broad, Legg Mason Capital Management fund manager Bill Miller and Shelby Davis, founder of Davis Advisors, are urging for change in the ailing insurance company's board and management.
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An AIG spokesman told The Deal that the board has received the shareholders' letter, but declined to provide any further details.
The shareholders, which together have a roughly 4% AIG stake, sent a letter to the board on Wednesday, June 11, that "significant and immediate changes at both the management and board level are clearly called for," according to Reuters. In a letter sent by the shareholders in May, they requested a meeting to discuss ways to improve senior management, but did not push for board changes, the report added.
Both letters are not publicly available and a Legg Mason spokeswoman refused to send it to The Deal and declined to comment. Davis and AIG officials did not return calls.
In Wednesday's letter, the shareholders reportedly requested that the board form a search committee led by a director "with strong business experience" and "new enough to the board to bear little or no responsibility for the mess created during the last three years."
AIG has been hammered of late by losses tied to subprime mortgages and has taken two consecutive quarterly losses totaling about $13 billion. The company a little more than a month ago said it would have to raise $12.5 billion in capital following the second consecutive loss.
AIG's stock ticked up about 3% to $34.23 per share in early afternoon trading on Wednesday. - Michael Rudnick
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