NEW YORK — Bailed-out global insurance company American International Group Inc. and the federal government are offering to sell a total of 300 million AIG shares to the public.
The stock sale would be a big step by the government toward disentangling itself from the company. The government stepped in to rescue AIG from collapse with $182 billion in 2008 — the biggest bailout of the financial crisis.
AIG and the government didn’t specify a price for the shares in a regulatory filing Wednesday. But 300 million shares of AIG were worth about $8.89 billion at Tuesday’s closing price of $29.62.
AIG shares rose $1.03, or 3.4 percent, to $30.65 Tuesday.
AIG has seen its shares drop by more than 40 percent since hitting a high of $52.67 on Jan. 7. Last week the New York-based company reported a first-quarter loss, weighed down by the repayment of bailout aid and losses from Japan’s earthquake and tsunami.
In March, AIG repaid the Treasury Department nearly $7 billion, trimming its outstanding balance to just under $60 billion. Treasury owns about 92 percent of AIG through its holdings of the company’s common stock.
