Greenberg has fought tooth and nail to protect his investment and keep
AIG out of the Federal Reserve's clutches, having participated in a
shareholder committee meeting earlier this week to brainstorm ways to
potentially raise capital for the flailing insurer before the Fed takes
its highly dilutive 79.9% stake via convertible preferred stock.
It looks like Greenberg may have thrown in the towel as he disclosed in a 13D filing
on Thursday that he intends to sell a portion of his AIG shares on the
open market, which are held in investment vehicle CV Starr & Co. He
did not disclose how many shares he intends to dump, only stating that
the sale "may materially decrease the percentage" of his holding.
Greenberg
has taken some painful hits on his stake, which at the beginning of the
year was valued at over $20 billion and is now valued at just over $1
billion. Might as well sell before that drops into the six-figure
range, which could very well happen when Greenberg is supplanted as the
largest shareholder by Uncle Sam. - Michael Rudnick
