Private equity firms may be poised to jump into the auction for American International Group Inc.'s (NYSE:AIG) Taiwanese life insurance unit Nan Shan Life Insurance Co. slated to begin on July 3.
Among the buyout shops reviewing information about the sale are the Carlyle Group, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Affinity Equity Partners Ltd. and MBK Partners Ltd, sources tell
Bloomberg.
According to
Dealscape, other bidders expected to participate in the auction include Primus Financial Holdings Ltd., Cathay Financial Holding Co., Chinatrust Financial Holding Co., Fubon Financial Holding Co., Shin Kong Financial Holding Co. and Mega Financial Holding Co.
The unit is expected to command a $2 billion valuation, but it may have trouble hitting that price target as the unit is under as much financial pressure as its parent. Nan Shan was forced to raise $1.45 billion in a rights offer last year to avoid slipping below a regulatory capital requirement as unprofitable policies eroded its reserves.
For AIG, the unit is among a host of assets it has on the block as it seeks to repay its $180 billion in bailout loans.
Other assets the insurer has sold include:
The insurer also plans to spin off its its international life insurance
divisions American International Assurance Co., or AIA, and American
Life Insurance Co., known as Alico, through IPOs of separate special purpose vehicles that will
knock $25 billion off what it owes to the government. Here are updates on the other asset sales AIG is working on:
- A consortium including Temasek Holdings Pte. Ltd. of Singapore and Richard Li's Pacific
Century Group and Franklin Resources Inc.'s are rumored to be finalizing a deal to buy AIG's asset management unit, AIG
Investments, which has about $100 billion under
management, and the insurer expects to get as much as $500 million for
the asset. There were rumors that Macquarie Group Ltd. was finalizing a bid for the fund management arm of AIG, The Australian reports. Other bidders for the unit are thought to include Creastview Partners, Ashmore
Investment Management Ltd., Hellman & Friedman LLC, Rhone Group LLC
and TA Associates, as well as mutual fund manager Franklin Templeton
Investments and asset manager Southgate Alternative
Investments, according to the Wall Street Journal. Religare Enterprises has also bid for AIG Investments, according to the Journal. The unit was expected to get bids
anywhere between $400 million and $800 million. AIG had originally
hoped to finish the sale by the end of May, according to reports, but
the process could run longer.
- AIG's Advisor Group division, housed within AIG's
retirement services division, which consists of three broker-dealers --
SagePoint Financial Inc. of Phoenix, FSC Securities Corp. of Atlanta
and Royal Alliance Associates Inc. of New York -- could sell for about
$200 million. Private equity firms Clayton, Dubilier & Rice Inc.
and Warburg Pincus have dropped out of the bidding for the division, leaving GTCR Golder Rauner LLC and several new bidders,
The Deal's Michael Rudnick reported. However, the three broker-dealers have lost nearly 14% of their advisers since February.
- The
sale of AIG's aircraft leasing unit, International Lease Finance Corp.,
or ILFC, could be finished soon. Greenbriar Equity Group LLC and Onex
Corp. may be closing in on the acquisition of AIG's ILFC. The Financial Times had reported that the insurer has received second-round bids from
private equity firms Thomas H. Lee Partners and Carlyle Group, Onex
Corp. and Greenbriar Equity Group, as well as an unidentified third
bidder. As Dealscape
previously noted, ILFC has a book value of $7.5 billion as of Sept. 30,
and bids were supposed to come in at around $5 billion. However, Reuters
is reporting that the unit may sell for under $5 billion. The figure is
not surprising considering AIG needs to repay $100 billion in debt and
does not have the cash to meet debt obligations of $33 billion for
ILFC's operations in 2009 due to the struggling airline business
and loss of its federal commercial paper lending facility after key
credit ratings were cut. The FT reported that the
government may even extend AIG a $5 billion loan to divest ILFC, which
should just about cover the purchase for the private equity firm that
decides to buy the unit. The credit line would come from the $180
billion bailout the government has already extended to the insurer.
- The AIG Global Real Estate fund management business
has around $12.4 billion in assets and $5.2 billion in equity capital.
The unit could be sold
for about $9 billion. Interested bidders could include BlackRock Inc.
and Blackstone Group LP (which might be a conflict because Blackstone
is advising). Included in that is its Japanese headquarters in Tokyo,
which may bring in more than $1 billion.
-
George White
