American International Group, Inc. (AIG) announced plans Friday to refocus on its core property and casualty insurance businesses and to sell the rest of the business to repay its debt to the government. AIG, which was taken over by the Federal Reserve in mid-September, noted in a press statement Friday that it had drawn $61 billion on the Fed credit facility as of Sept. 30. The company said it also plans to retain its foreign life insurance businesses while letting go of its remaining high-quality assets. It announced it is also seeking alternatives for its securities lending program. “We are refocusing on our traditional strengths in property and casualty underwriting,” said CEO Edward M. Liddy in a press statement. Although AIG said a number of suitors have already contacted the company about acquiring its profitable operations, no final sales were announced as of the writing of this story. “Our goal is to emerge from this process as a smaller but more nimble company that is solidly profitable and has good long-term growth prospects,” Libby said. AIG hosted a conference call Friday morning during which Libby said the company should benefit from the $700 billion bailout legislation and expects to emerge from the refocusing “with a capital structure that’s fit to fight.” AIG’s foray into wrapping mortgage-backed securities proved in no small part to lead to its recent undoing; during the recent housing boom, the insurer sold banks and other investors CDS protection on $441 billion of fixed-income assets, including $57.8 billion in subprime-mortgage related securities. Read the full release on AIG’s Web site >> Editor’s note: To contact the reporter on this story, email [email protected].

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